Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 62-minute teaching, Ven Thubten Dondrub walks through the opening of the Seven Point Mind Training, a classical Tibetan Buddhist text on cultivating bodhicitta—the aspiration to achieve enlightenment to free all beings from suffering. He begins by explaining why the preliminary practices of renouncing this life and saṃsāra matter, then moves to the heart of the practice: overcoming self-cherishing by recognizing the immense kindness of all sentient beings. Dondrub covers the two main methods for generating bodhicitta (Asaṇga’s approach involving recognizing all beings as former mothers), the role of love and compassion as its foundation, and how every quality of a Buddha—including the six perfections and the four ways of gathering disciples—depends entirely on sentient beings. He emphasizes that understanding this dependence is not merely philosophical but a transformative practice for daily life, showing practitioners how to see others as supremely worthy of respect and affection. The teaching is practical and polemical, addressing common Buddhist pitfalls such as venerating lamas while neglecting ordinary people, and encouraging genuine reflection rather than passive acceptance of doctrine.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2013 07 25 Mind Training .mp3 HIGHLY DISTORTED.mp3
UUID: 5dce71b1-456b-4f00-b7a3-4fa04a0caff0
Teacher: Ven Thubten Dondrub
Collection: Mind Training (Ven Thubten Dondrub)
Date: 2013-07-25
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 62.3 minutes
Words: ~6,811
So the second point, mind training starts with where it says first train in the preliminaries. First there’s two introductory paragraphs then then it says the the bulk of the text starts with the line first train in the preliminaries. Submitted to the preliminaries to bodhicitta. Being able to fully develop bodhicitta are firstly being able to develop the mind renouncing this life, then cultivating the mind that is able to renounce attachment to cyclic existence. And once we’ve been able to do that, which can take quite a while, once we can really do that, we’ve got the basis to be able to really generate bodhicitta.
But the way we can practice as ordinary beings, even if we haven’t developed the mind renouncing even this life, still it’s valid, worthwhile to try and put imprints of bodhicitta, train the mind in bodhicitta now. Because when so if we put in that training now and put those imprints in our mind now, when we eventually do develop the mind renouncing this life and renouncing saṃsāra, then those imprints will be able to really flourish. Right? And definitely there’s some benefit in doing these practices now anyway in this life for sure because if really study and hear teachings on bodhicitta and think about it and meditate on it and try and practice it in our daily life, even if we can’t actually generate bodhicitta in this life or for many lives, certainly by directing our mind in this way will be able to at least become more loving, more compassionate. This definitely should happen.
If that doesn’t happen, then something’s wrong. We are we’re not doing it properly. So anyway, then goes on to say so that that’s the introduction. So then, you know, being able to develop bodhicitta, it says, if we really want to be able to develop bodhicitta, banish the one to blame for everything. Maybe I should say at the beginning, which I don’t think I ever have, that this seven point mind training text is like a memory aid for someone who received teachings on bodhicitta, has meditated, is meditating on it, wants to generate bodhicitta.
So this is a little reminder of what to do in daily life. And so someone who was serious would memorize this text and then this would encourage that memory of the text would then be extremely helpful in daily life to remind us to practice. So the first thing to practice in our daily life in trying to cultivate bodhicitta is to banish the one to blame for everything. So I’m the one thing to blame for everything is our own self-cherishing. In other words, everything that happens to us that we don’t want to happen to us, which we blame other people for that.
Who we should blame is not ourselves but our self-cherishing. I’m not going to explain that anymore because I’ve spent several weeks explaining what self-cherishing is and several weeks trying to explain that line, but that’s just a brief reminder. Everything, all our suffering comes from inner causes, not outer conditions. There are outer conditions for our suffering, outer conditions for our happiness, but the real cause the Buddha discovered, and this is something we can discover, the real cause of suffering, our own suffering, the real cause of any happiness we will ever experience, the real cause, the root cause, the essential ingredient is something coming from within our mind. And the real cause of all our suffering is our own self-cherishing.
Yeah. So we so when everything anything goes wrong, we’re reminded, don’t blame other people, this and that. Put the blame on one’s own self-cherishing. And of course that means being determined as much as possible to avoid self-cherishing in the future. If I don’t want this problem, if I’m unhappy because this problem has presented itself in my life, to avoid even just that one problem problems but just to avoid that one I need to avoid self-cherishing as much as I can.
So that’s a major thing we have to do is avoid or reduce, modify and eventually eliminate our self-cherishing because that’s the great obstacle to developing bodhicitta the wish to achieve enlightenment in order to enlighten every living being. If we’re totally focused on ourselves but also self-cherishing is more than just focusing on ourselves, it’s focusing on ourselves in the wrong way. We may think it’s the right way but it’s actually a totally confused negative way. But if we if we continue to do that, there’s no way we can create the space in our mind for all these positive potentials of love, compassion, and generosity, and so on to really manifest. Because so we have to try and replace our self-cherishing with the mind that genuinely cherishes others, not just likes them or even loves them, but cherishes them.
Cherishes. self-cherishing, there the cherishing is a negative kind of confused thing. When cherishing others it’s a completely positive thing. It’s a completely different mindset altogether. When we cherish our I’m talking about you know I can’t help myself.
When we’re caught up in self-cherishing it actually means following our afflicted desire, attachment, anger and so on. When cherishing others properly it’s about having actual love for them, actual compassion etc etc. So in order to cherish others and eventually to be able to cherish them more than ourselves we have to follow the next instruction, the next line which says meditate on the great kindness of all beings. Right? That’s it.
So we’re up to that point to meditate on the great kindness of all sentient beings. Remember all sentient beings, not just some sentient beings, but all sentient beings without exception. In order to generate actually be able to generate bodhicitta at some point we have to actually realize in a very deep way that all sentient beings have been very kind to me. So, the commentary, we’ve we’ve started the commentary a little bit. Now I’ve lost my page.
Where did we get to? We’re on page fifty two. Keep going your way way I’ll keep going. What’s that say? I can’t yeah.
Keep going. What’s that? Say, no. That’s a bit too far. Think it’s not a bit further, is it?
Keep going. Keep going. Yes. Yes. It’s okay.
A little bit more. A little more more. Yeah. Yes. Keep going.
Yes. Keep going. Stop. Right. We’ll just uh-uh we got to about here.
So, yes, so it goes on to say, In addition, the awakening mind, which is the mind of bodhicitta, seeks to gain unsurpassable enlightenment. The awakening mind that seeks to gain unsurpassable enlightenment must be preceded by love and compassion. So these are are causes of bodhicitta. Just briefly to remind people, there are two main ways of generating bodhicitta and one is the method of the great bodhisattva asanga. So that method involves firstly recognizing that all sentient beings have been one’s mother, then secondly remembering the great kindness of mothers, thirdly that leads to the third cause, which is wanting to repay the kindness of mother sentient beings by remembering how immensely kind they are.
And that leads to the next two causes, is generating love. Because by thinking about how to what you want to repay that kindness, then you think about how can you repay that kindness, and then one comes to the realization that the best way, the only way to repay the kindness of sentient beings is to free them from suffering, which is compassion. Compassion the mind wanting beings to be free of suffering, and more than that is for them to have happiness. And that is what love is. Love is the mind wishing others happiness.
But as I said last week, when we talk about love in the dharma context, we’re not talking about ordinary love, worldly love. We’re talking about love which wishes beings to have happiness, and that happiness is not worldly happiness, ordinary happiness, but what Lama Zopa Rinpoche calls peerless, everlasting happiness. And that can only come when the mind is free of all disturbing thoughts and all positive qualities are awakened. Ultimately, love is wishing well, from a Mahāyāna point of view, love is wishing sentient beings to achieve enlightenment. But at least in a lesser way, is wishing sentient beings to have an experience which we call happiness, which is not just worldly happiness, which is really just distraction and entertainment and the illusion of happiness.
Because yeah. Anyway, if we study the teachings more and more, what we as ordinary beings call happiness, all the things that we experience which we label happiness, are actually examples of the first noble truth of suffering. In the teachings it talks about that it is possible to distinguish There is the Sanskrit word which is translated as suffering, which is dukkha. But there are three kinds of dukkha, and the first kind is what we think of as suffering, which is said to be the suffering of suffering obvious physical and mental pain. Right?
But that’s only one kind of dukkha. The much more subtle kind is what we call happiness. Everything that we think of is happiness. You know, fluffy bunnies, sunsets, nice food, sex, drugs, rock and roll, and all those things, all that stuff, that all of that is are examples of the suffering of change. It’s it’s not real happiness because it changes.
It doesn’t last. Now there’s other reasons why it’s not happiness, but the obvious way to understand that it’s not real happiness is that it’s it doesn’t last. So love, when we talk about love in the Buddhist sense, which translation of the Sanskrit word Maitri or Jampa in Tibetan, that is the wish for beings to have genuine happiness, not the suffering of change. You know, if you say, I love you, for an ordinary person, what we’re really saying is, I want you to experience the suffering of change. I love you.
I want you to be miserable, subtly miserable. Yeah. So we’re not trying to cultivate that mind. We’re trying to cultivate a mind that wants others to have genuine happiness, something that is satisfying, lasting, complete, perfect, wonderful. Right.
What? What? Well, sorry. To be super honest I suppose to say yes. But not everyone’s going to become a Buddhist anyway, at least straight away.
But it it is the wish for people to or or what what real love also involves is not just simply wanting them to have happiness, but especially wanting them to have the causes. Because, you know, just wanting someone to have happiness is not going to bring them happiness. Just wishing them happiness is not going to bring them happiness. And that that person themselves, you know, ourselves just wanting to be happy is not going to make us happy. No matter how much we want to be happy and pray to be happy, it’s not going to make us happy.
Right? I mean, we do need to we do need to want to be happy because that will motivate us to do stuff, but we have to create the causes. Nothing will happen. No result occurs if we if we don’t create the cause. And we can’t just create any cause.
We have to create the proper cause, the actual causes of happiness. So love is in a in a in basic ordinary situation in life is well, love and compassion always go together. Right? They are, you know, separate, separate, but they if you if you love someone, you will also have compassion for them. If you have compassion for someone, you will also love them.
Right? So in in an in an ordinary situation, it will it will involve, you know, wanting that person not to create the causes of suffering and maybe trying to help them in some ways, not to create the causes of suffering, wanting them to create the causes of happiness, and trying to help them do that. You know, in some in some even in some small way, not necessarily doing some great major spiritual practice, but, encourage you know, trying to help people do things that are virtuous, encouraging people in the practice of virtue and avoiding non virtue, that is the practice of love and compassion. As I try and say, the practice of of of living a moral life oneself, even just for one’s own sake, that is a practice of love and compassion towards oneself. Because if we have real compassion for ourselves, we would want to avoid the causes of suffering.
Therefore, we will live a moral life. If we, yeah, if we really want to be happy, then we will engage in the causes. And that also involves living a moral life. As I said last week, very, very basic teaching of the Buddha is what he discovered is that virtue, you know, the the action of virtue brings happiness. The action of non virtue brings suffering.
And of course, one doesn’t get the ultimate happiness at first, but one gets something that is more how can you say? It’s more authentic. And and even though I oh, this gets very complicated. Maybe I’m making things too complicated. But in practicing Dharma as an ordinary person, by engaging in virtuous actions, the karmic result is some kind of happiness.
But that happiness that comes from engaging in ordinary virtuous actions such as, for example, it is taught that the practice of generosity results in having resources. Poverty comes from not being generous and so on, and stealing and whatever. Wealth and resources and everything comes from practicing generosity. And so having resources and some wealth and possessions brings some happiness. But that happiness isn’t peerless, everlasting happiness.
It’s still samsaric happiness. But at least it’s been bought with virtue, not trying to engage in trying to be happy, often what we do is engage in virtuous actions non virtuous actions. So we’re trying to buy happiness with non virtue, but you don’t actually get happiness as a result of non virtue. You get suffering. Am I making any sense there?
No? Was that no. No. No. Say something.
You’re not trying to be polite. That didn’t make sense. No. Did that make sense to anyone? Oh, good.
Did it not make sense to someone? Or at least yes. Volume. Hello. Anyway, to get back to the text, bodhicitta has to be preceded by love and compassion because Oh, as I was going through the causes bodhicitta is the wish for all sentient beings to have no suffering and therefore no causes of suffering and to have perfect happiness and to have created all the causes.
So that can only arise if you think about it. The only way to have that mind set is firstly to have developed the mind of love wanting them to be happy. Because enlightenment is the determination I have to become a Buddha in order to free everyone from suffering and to bring about their perfect happiness. So firstly, one has to want to wish their perfect happiness, want them to be free of suffering, and then think, how am I ever going to do that? And that leads to the thought, the only way I can, you know, free others from suffering in fact, the only way to free one person from suffering and to lead them to peerless everlasting happiness is to become a Buddha.
One has to be a Buddha. One has to be free of all faults, have every quality, good quality fully developed even to perfectly develop, perfectly benefit one sentient being. So to develop to benefit all sentient beings, for sure, we have to be a Buddha. Right? And so that wish to become Buddha only becomes really authentic and it becomes a determination only if one has complete love, that that total wish for others to be free of suffering and to be free of its causes, and and really wanting others to create the causes of happiness and oneself being determined, well, I’ve got to help them do it.
Yeah? Because they’re not doing it. So I’ve got to somehow encourage them and that’s gonna take an awful long time. So I have to be a Buddha because Buddhas have got tons of time. We don’t because we’re miserable and confused and distracted.
We don’t have any time. It just disappears. We live in a world of billions of time saving devices and we have no time. We have far less time than our grandparents, far less time. But Buddhas, they just they can wait eons to help one sentient being.
Just eons. Just they just wait and wait until the time’s ready. So you need a lot of patience and perseverance. Sorry? Oh sure, yes.
The Buddha knows exactly what to do. Yes. And that’s why the Buddha can wait until it’s the right time to say the right thing and do the right thing, which may only be one little thing. You know, this person is only ready to hear this one thing. So the Buddha waits an eon, says it, waits another eon to say the next bit.
So in a practical level, we can try and help one person, but we have to be really patient. Really, really patient. Not expect any results, but just try. And as His Holiness says, you know, if if we can’t help sentient beings yet, at least don’t harm them. So the wish to achieve enlightenment must be preceded by love and compassion, which in turn are developed in dependence on sentient beings.
Say that only a fully awakened being has the ability to eliminate every last hindrance and misery and establish every single sentient being without exception in a state of happiness and well-being, stirred by love and compassion, we should activate the awakening mind that wishes to attain that completely awakened state of mind. So as Maitreya says, Generating the awakening mind is the desire for completely perfected, full awakening for others’ sake. So that’s what bodhicitta is. And it goes on to say: The four ways of amassing disciples, which are practicing giving, speaking pleasantly, teaching and acting in accordance with the teachings. So these are practices of bodhisattvas.
So a bodhisattva is someone who has generated authentic bodhicitta. They have developed this incredible mind that is determined to become a Buddha and save every being from suffering, lead them to enlightenment. So such a person has the task of amassing disciples. They need disciples, that is, they need to gather people that they can help. So therefore actually learning these things is a little bit dangerous because you can use these with a bad motivation.
So if you want to gather disciples, the way to do it is firstly practice generosity. You give people things because then they like you. And once they like you, then you can hook them. You’ve got them. But this is what Lamas do, you know, and Bodhisattvas do.
But, I mean, the the real ones, of course, do it with the right motivation because they want to benefit us. The phony ones do it because they want Rolex watches and power and all sorts of things like that. That’s why one has to check up on the Guru very, very carefully before committing oneself. So firstly, one speaks one practices generosity, then you speak pleasantly to the disciple, the Dharma, and thirdly, much much more difficult speak pleasantly. The third one is to teach the Dharma, and the fourth one is the tricky one, which is to actually act in accordance with the Dharma oneself.
Because that is really the way to completely where I would find someone who is not only able to teach the to be kind and generous, speak pleasantly, but also is able to teach the Dharma, more than that is someone who actually lives the Dharma themselves, who actually lives totally in accordance with it, then that person is very, very attractive. One wants to be with that person, one trusts that person, one will listen to that person. And so that person can guide people to enlightenment because the people will trust them and try and do what is advised. A bodhisattva is someone who engages in the four ways of amassing disciples and also practices what are called here the six transcending perfections which is generosity, ethics, patience, enthusiasm, meditative stability and discriminating intelligence or wisdom. So all of these qualities are also developed in dependence on sentient beings, as is abiding in and repeatedly enhancing the awakening mind.
So the point is that all these amazing qualities being able to practice for example the six perfections which at least at the beginning definitely benefit us. To be able to practice generosity, to be able to practice ethical discipline, to be able to practice patience and so on the only way we can do it is relying on other sentient beings. If they weren’t there, we couldn’t cultivate these qualities. To abide bodhicitta having generated bodhicitta, to actually live that life, we still depend on sentient beings. Right?
And to increase bodhicitta, the only way to increase it is to practice in dependence on sentient beings. Conclusion? Sentient beings are very kind. Yeah. Unbelievably kind.
You know, if if we generate love to towards another person, as soon as we that mind of love arises, we will be incredibly joyous ourselves. They not may not be. They they may not even know we love them because, you know, we’re not talking about sort of, you know, ordinary love and carrying on with people. We’re just talking about developing a mind wanting a person to be really happy. Yeah.
You don’t have to even say it to them to have love for another person. But as soon as we’re able to actually have that mind, when it is active, that mental factor is active in our consciousness, that will bring great peace and joy and happiness and contentment and well for however long it’s active there. So to have that wonderful experience, we have to have someone to love. And and what kind of person can you we discussed this last week, didn’t we? Am I just repeating everything?
I thought I’ve repeat repeated the class for the last six months, haven’t I? I’m sorry. I just say the same things. Anyway, I’ll say it again. What kind of person can we love?
One can only develop love, remember, in relation to someone who isn’t happy. Love is realizing someone feeling very strongly that this person isn’t happy. Is actually, as the text said earlier on, bereft of happiness. One has to really realize that, not just think it, but feel it. Think and feel it, that this person actually and as I said, you know, there there are people who obviously aren’t happy, but there are people who aren’t obviously unhappy but are, like virtually every sentient being, whether they’re rich, famous, good looking, powerful, successful, they don’t have real happiness.
And when one realizes that in a deep way, then a sense of love can arise for them wanting them to have happiness, thinking how wonderful it would be if this person could have real happiness. Not just all these things that look like happiness, that entertain the mind for a short time. But how wonderful if this person could have some experience of some kind of genuine happiness and create its causes. And, you know, as I said last week, to practice patience, you have to have an enemy or someone irritates you or annoys you or upsets you. You can’t practice patience with your friends when they’re being friendly.
You can only practice patience with unpleasant people. So even unpleasant people are incredibly kind because we can develop patience with them. Patience is so helpful in other situations. If we practice patience with this person, what patience we’ve cultivated, we can use that to be patient with all sorts of other difficult people, difficult problems, sickness, our own crazy mind, and this’s and that’s. So to have someone who forces us to think about being patient and work on it, that actually is also very kind.
So whatever way one looks, sentient beings are very kind. Therefore, we can say that the basis of our conduct, the source of the awakening mind, love and compassion, the basis of the practice, the generation of the altruistic mind, and the essence of our own training arise in dependence on sentient beings. We totally depend on them. I was saying earlier that our main problem source of our suffering is self-cherishing. Actually, the deeper source is our ignorance.
Because of our ignorance, this wrong view of wrong experience of our self and everything, we have self-cherishing. And one aspect of that ignorance that obscures our mind creates the illusion that which we think we believe is real, not an illusion, but we think is true that I am in this independent phenomena. I exist independently of everything and everyone. I am this self made amazing being. I am just so terrific, and everything about me is totally due to me.
Nothing else and no one else. I am just self arisingly fantastic. Fantastic. And it’s just not true. As I try and say in the motivation every week, every class, you know, just exist, just to keep alive, we depend on everyone directly and indirectly.
Just even basic things to be able to read and to talk and to put on our clothes, etcetera. We depended on people showing us these things. But and whatever skills and knowledge we have, it started with our mom who, teaching us how to speak, and then our primary school teachers, who we’ve probably all forgotten who they were. I have. Sorry.
Maybe you haven’t, but I’ve forgotten who they were. Can’t remember at all. Some of them, I can because they hit me. But, anyway, but, anyway, so incredibly kind. Incredibly kind.
And and I but also, yeah, we depend on them. Most of that we forget, we ignore and think it’s just all me. It’s just all me. The accumulation of all manner of causes for accomplishing the fruit of Buddhahood depends upon sentient beings. Even after the highest attainment of complete awakening, the practice of enlightened activity, which comes about in an unbroken stream, arises in dependence upon sentient beings for whom it is done.
So the actual state of enlightenment comes into being depending on the kindness of sentient beings. And then once a being is enlightened, you know, there is this continuous unstoppable stream of enlightened activity. So also you can say all of that, that perfect activity of benefiting others, that only comes into existence depending on sentient beings. Sentient beings are really kind. And so we are benefiting from Śākyamūni Buddha.
If he hadn’t existed, then the teachings wouldn’t exist. We wouldn’t be here to benefit from them. So we still experiencing at least indirectly the enlightened activity of Śākyamūni Buddha. And that enlightened activity comes from Śākyamūni Buddha. That being achieving enlightenment and that being who’s called Śākyamūni Buddha achieved enlightenment depending on sentient beings.
So whatever benefit we get from the Dharma comes from the Buddha and he arose depending on sentient beings. Sentient beings are very all those sentient beings who help the Buddha become a Buddha are kind to us. We experiencing their kindness. We are indirectly depending on them, indirectly benefiting from them. Essentially, at the root of everything in the great vehicle, which is the Mahāyāna teachings of the Buddha, the causes and the result is concern for sentient beings.
As the Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life by Śāntideva, here is one of many, many versions of this amazing book available in the English language. The original text composed in the eighth century of this era by the great master Śāntideva. So this is considered to be the excuse the word the bible of how to generate bodhicitta. This is probably the single most quoted book in Tibetan Buddhism Right? And definitely in the Gelugpa tradition, probably, this is the single most used quoted book of all.
And as it says as it says at the back of the book, quote from his Holiness, the Dalai Lama, If I have any understanding of compassion and the practice of the bodhisattva path, it is entirely on the basis of this text that I possess it. Actually this text that we’re going through, the seven point mind training, owes its origin to this text actually. It says in this text: Whenever I turn my gaze upon a sentient being, thinking I shall fully awaken through depending on this being, I should look at her or him with open hearted love. So this is something actually we can practice in daily life, which is a perfect response to your question: What can we do in daily life? When we look at anyone friend, enemy, stranger, young, old, human, nonhuman to think by relating in a positive way to this person, being kind, generous, this practicing the six perfections with this person, I can achieve enlightenment or at least start to.
Understanding that, one will have affection for them thinking, oh, how kind. You know? I can get so much benefit from this person by being nice just by being nice to them. Not harming them, actually being kind to them. So that’s amazingly kind.
So then one will feel something positive towards them, which could be called love. One single benefit, their existence brings me. One if one really understands that, really believes it, then one will want them to be happy. In Asaṇga’s method of generating bodhicitta, we think about how sentient beings have been our mother, how immensely kind mothers are, and the more we think how much kindness we’ve received from others, we will want to repay that kindness. And the more we want, you know, and that’s when we realize the best way to repay their kindness is, not just wishing them happiness, but helping them to achieve it.
Moreover, if for instance we plant healthy seeds in an extremely fertile field, guarding them well against marauders, we will reap a bountiful harvest. Understanding this, we will treat our fine field with great care. Likewise, having planted the potent seeds of love, compassion, the awakening mind, the six transcending perfections, and the four means of amassing disciples in the field of sentient beings, if we look after them well, they will give rise to the state of a fully awakened being, a transcendent subduer, fulfilling the two purposes of ourselves and others. So we can work upon all sentient beings as this incredible field that if we take care of it properly, then we will get this enormous harvest of enlightenment. We will become a Buddha.
And how we take care of this field is by practicing the well, we’re not ready to amass disciples yet but at least practicing the six perfections of generosity, morality, patience, perseverance, concentration and wisdom so on. So a Buddha who here is referred to as a transcendent subduer, they’ve subdued every kind of negativity within their own mind, eliminated them in fact. Such a person, a Buddha, fulfills two purposes. So one purpose is our own purpose. Our own purpose is to achieve perfect happiness.
So a Buddha achieves that. By becoming a Buddha, we fulfill our own purpose of becoming perfectly happy, achieving peerless, everlasting happiness. And how one achieves that actually is by developing the omniscient mind, the dharmakaya. The dharmakaya fulfills one’s own purpose, and the other purpose is benefiting other sentient beings. So the Buddha fulfills that purpose by what is called the Rūpakāya, the various physical manifestations of the enlightened mind.
So there is this Sambhogakāya that only the Ārya bodhisattvas perceive. So the Buddha manifests in these various Sambhogakāya forms to benefit highly realized beings, to achieve enlightenment. And there is Nirmānakāya form of the Buddha who appears, and there is what is called the Supreme Nirmānakāya, which is Śākyamūni Buddha. It is an example of a Supreme Nirmānakāya, the enlightened mind manifesting in this physical form appearing in the world, teaching ordinary beings. But a Supreme One manifesting as a perfect Buddha, showing themselves as a Buddha.
But there are many other kinds of Nirmānakāya, and the Tibetan word for Nirmānakāya of course is Tulku. The Tulkus, most Tulkus. Here I go. Of course not all Tibetan Tulkus are actually Buddhas, but it’s just a skillful means to think they are and has become accustomed to referring to incarnated lamas as Tulkus. Possibly, such as His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
But a a a Buddha can appear as a dog, an ant, you know, the postman, anything, anyone to to benefit sentient beings, to fulfill the purposes of others. But of course the best way the Buddha appears to benefit sentient beings is as a qualified teacher because this is the way the Buddha can directly benefit us, teaching the Dharma to those whose minds are open to it. So understanding this, understanding how immensely kind sentient beings are, understanding how we are totally dependent on them, we always have been, there isn’t the moment when we are not dependent on sentient beings. While we’re in saṃsāra, we will depend on them. To get out of saṃsāra, we’ll depend on them.
Become Buddha, we depend on them. So understanding this, we will take great care of the field of sentient beings. So not harming them, benefiting them as much as we can, and seeing them as pleasing and attractive, we will respect them. So the more we understand how sentient beings have been kind to us and how much we depend on them we will develop what is called affectionate love which I’ve talked about before in an earlier class where which is as my teacher Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains is how one aspect of affectionate love is where you see another person in beauty. You see them as pleasant, not necessarily physically beautiful in an ordinary sense, but you see them as beautiful.
Just like a small child may think they’re granny and grandpa, who may be very old and whatever, but they’re beautiful. They love them. You know, you love your granny and grandpa when you’re a little kid. They’re beautiful people no matter how old they may be and whatever. You see them in beauty.
Anyone you care for, you see in beauty. There’s some kind of, like, aura around them that is pleasant. And that comes by seeing that feeling the kindness of that being. When you feel the kindness of something of someone, then you have this affection for them. You have this affectionate love.
And that’s the basis for developing the love which wishes them happiness. Because the more affection one has for someone, you’ll want them to have happiness. And not just some, you know, ordinary happiness, but the real thing, something that’s really lasting and enriching. So again in the Bodhisattva Way of Life it says: Therefore the Mighty One meaning the Buddha has stated that there are the field of sentient beings and the field of Buddhas, for many who have pleased them have thereby reached perfection. So the analogy is that in a field you plant seeds and then you get a crop.
So in the same way in the field of the Buddhas, by respecting the Buddhas, making offerings to the Buddhas etc, one creates merit in the mind. You plant these positive seeds in the mind through one’s refuge in the Buddha in the triple gem, one’s faith in the triple gem, one’s practice of Chenrezig and so on. One plants these positive imprints so the Buddhas act like a field where you plant these one creates this merit which ripens as happiness and as the basis for the realizations that lead to liberation and enlightenment. The Buddha himself said that not only are Buddhas this amazing field of merit, but sentient beings are too. By relating in the right way, in this positive way, sentient beings, one also creates enormous merit.
So there are these two fields with which we can accumulate merit: the Buddhas and sentient beings. Śāntideva goes on to say: Since the qualities of full awakening are derived from sentient beings and conquerors alike, how can we act respectfully towards conquerors and not towards sentient beings? We should not foster such an attitude. So what can happen is people trying to practice the Dharma, being Buddhists rather than Dharma practitioners, they’re all very gaga about the Buddhas and respectful and bow down and make offerings and put flowers on the altar and everything, with lamas rushing around taking care of lamas, but with ordinary people not being so nice. If the Lama wants a cup of tea, everyone rushes for miles, you know, gets in their car and drives a hundred miles to buy a packet of tea.
But if the person next to you says, I’d like a cup of tea, I’ll get it yourself. But if we had this mindset that actually sentient beings are just the same field of merit as the Buddha’s, taking care of a sentient being is the same as taking care of the Buddha as taking care of the Guru. In addition, seeing sentient beings as the source of the cause and result of fully awakening, they are all worthy of our highest respect. The source text, that is, Śāntideva’s text, says: Even if in order to pay respect to someone in whom a mere portion of good qualities of the unique collection of excellence exists, we were to present the three realms it would be insufficient. So what that’s saying is someone who has a mere portion of the good qualities of the unique collection of excellence that’s referring the unique collection of excellence refers to a Buddha.
So even if someone who has just a tiny bit of the quality of in order to respect someone who has even a tiny quality similar to a Buddha, it would require what? We had to make offerings. What does it say? We were to present the three realms. We were to make an offering of all, you know, the three realms, meaning the whole universe, that that wouldn’t be sufficient.
And since all sentient beings have a portion of the Buddha’s supreme qualities, for this reason alone sentient beings are worthy of respect. So this is something we forget, that actually every sentient being has Buddha potential, Buddha nature. So they have, at least in potential form, these qualities of a Buddha. And some people have started to develop those potentials. So, therefore, they are worthy of respect.
Every sentient being has Buddha nature, even even the tiniest grub, slug. Right? So they’re worthy of respect. So in conclusion for this part, so we have a tea break, the point is we are hearing this, we should try and think about it, reflect on it, to put these imprints in our mind, to come to you’re all sitting here very politely, and some of you are even smiling occasionally. So that’s good.
But I’m not sure whether you believe what’s being said or not. You may think this is a load of rubbish, but one one the idea is to come to some understanding that this is really true. It’s just not a cute way of thinking, a nice way of thinking. It is actually a valid a completely valid way of thinking. It’s true.
It is scientifically true that we are totally dependent on sentient beings. Therefore, they are kind, immensely kind, and therefore, I should be nice to them and respect them. Wish them happiness, not wish them harm. Wish them to be free of suffering. And by thinking about that more and more, putting that imprint more and more, that can help us to be mindful in our daily life to actually do that.
That when we look at another person, try to see someone who is immensely kind. No matter what they’re doing now, they are deserving my respect, my affection, and so on. Wouldn’t it be great if we could think like that, feel like that in our daily life? And we can because we have the potential to. We just have to work on it.
Tea break. Is it a tea break or refreshments? It’s a tea break.