Training the Mind in the Path to Enlightenment

By Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Singapore (Archive #702)

Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave these three Dharma talks at Kim Seng Bowl, Singapore, on 13-14 October 1990. Edited by Ven. Ailsa Cameron.

3. The Four Aspects of Karma

There are four types of beings, three of which are actual capable beings. The being of low capability, with the motivation of renunciation of this life, tries to achieve the body of a happy migratory being, a deva or a human being, in their next life. For that reason, they then practice refuge and protecting karma, by practicing the ten virtues. The being of middle capability, with the motivation of renunciation of the whole of samsara with the aim to achieve liberation for self, practices the three higher trainings: the higher trainings of morality, concentration, and great insight. The third capable being, the being of great capability, with the motivation of bodhicitta, the altruistic wish to achieve enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings, aims to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings. In order to achieve this aim, they then practice the six paramitas.

Those who are tantric practitioners, with the motivation of bodhicitta and on the basis of practice of the six paramitas, then practice tantra. To achieve enlightenment in one brief lifetime of a degenerate time, which means within a few years, they practice especially Highest Yoga Tantra. You practice tantra because you feel it is unbearable that other sentient beings have to suffer in samsara for even one second, which for you is like many eons. You can’t stand it. From your side, to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings, even if you have to suffer in hell for eons equal in number to the drops of water in the ocean, you can bear it. But you can’t stand for sentient beings to experience suffering in samsara for even one second. For that reason, you need to achieve enlightenment very quickly, and so you practice tantra. Receiving initiation ripens your mind and permits you to meditate on and to practice the tantric path.

Practitioners of the lam-rim, the graduated path to enlightenment, are divided into these three levels of capability.

Now, the other being is an ordinary capable being. Why ordinary? Their motivation is only clinging to this life, obtaining the happiness of only this life. They live their life and do their work with a motivation of attachment clinging to this life, seeking the happiness of only this life. Even if they practice meditation or recite prayers, their Dharma practice is done with a motivation of attachment clinging to this life; their aim is only the temporary samsaric happiness of this life. Although the prayer itself might have been taught by Buddha or one of his followers, one of the great pandits or yogis who achieved the path, the action of reciting it did not become Dharma. Even if the subject is Dharma, it doesn’t mean that the person’s action necessarily becomes Dharma. It depends on the motivation. Whether or not a person’s action of body, speech, and mind becomes Dharma, whether or not it becomes pure virtue, depends on the motivation.

When we describe these four beings, it has to do with the capacity of the mind. Meditation and prayers can be done with a motivation of attachment to this life, of attachment to your own happiness and of only this life. You can do meditation and prayers to be wealthy, powerful, famous, healthy, have a long life, and so forth. You can do them not for the sake of other sentient beings, but only for yourself, for your own happiness in this life. Even though the subject of the prayers might be Dharma, something taught by Buddha, your action does not become Dharma. Mantras and teachings have much power to heal, to solve the problems of this life, because of the truth of the Buddha’s words, but that does not necessarily mean that the action of reciting them becomes Dharma, or virtue.

You can even recite them with a negative motivation, clinging to your happiness of this life, such as to obtain power. You can even recite mantras only to harm other sentient beings rather than to benefit them. Since your motivation is nonvirtuous, your action becomes nonvirtuous.

Therefore, it is extremely important to analyze our motivation in our everyday life before we do an action, before we do a job, and even before we do mantras, prayers, and meditation. We have to check our own attitude, and if we find it is nonvirtuous, which will make our action nonvirtuous, we then have to transform our attitude into virtue. The best motivation is bodhicitta, the altruistic wish to achieve enlightenment purely to benefit sentient beings. If you can’t generate that motivation, then generate the motivation to achieve liberation for self or at least to achieve the happiness of future lives.

The happiness of future lives means that of not just one life but long-term happiness, until we become free from the cycle of death and rebirth, from the whole suffering of samsara. During all that time, we have to take rebirth in samsara—not just one or two times and not just a hundred times. Since it’s uncertain how long it will take until we become free from samsara, we need to prepare for the happiness of all those coming future lives. We need to prepare right now. In each hour, each minute, of our daily life we have to prepare, because death is definite and it can happen at any time. Right this moment we need to prepare for the happiness of all our coming future lives.

When you do your work or even your meditation, if your motivation is for only the happiness of this life, you are a being of ordinary capability, no different from an animal. Mice, who steal things, ants, tigers, fish in the water, and snakes are all expert in finding the means of living. Even though they haven’t gone to school or college, animals are expert in obtaining their daily means of living. They are very clever, and can do things that human beings can’t do. Animals have the same motivation: they work to obtain the happiness of just this life. This motivation is nothing special, because even animals do this very well. Bees collecting honey and so many other animals are very skillful in this. We might have a human body, but as far as our mind goes, our attitude can be the same as that of an animal.

All those who live just for the happiness of this life are ordinary capable beings. Of the four types of capable beings, only three of them are actual capable beings. The ones who are able to obtain the happiness of future lives, liberation, and enlightenment are the real capable beings.

You now have a basic understanding of what makes your actions in daily life nonvirtuous, the cause of suffering. It is the mind, specifically nonvirtuous motivations such as the ignorance not knowing Dharma, anger, and attachment clinging to this life. This third one is the basic one. Any action done with this attitude of attachment clinging to this life becomes a nonvirtue, because the motivation is nonvirtuous, and the cause of rebirth in the lower realms as a hell being, a hungry ghost, or an animal. It also causes many other problems.

In order to practice Dharma the very first, most important point is that we have to know what Dharma is. We then have to make the activities of our everyday life—eating, walking, sitting, sleeping, working—Dharma. We have to make the work that we do in our everyday life become meditation, or Dharma. By knowing what Dharma means, we have to transform our actions into Dharma. Without knowing the definition of Dharma, we cannot transform our actions into Dharma. We then find conflict between our work and Dharma. Dharma becomes something we do only in a temple, and outside of the temple there’s no Dharma. When we come out of the temple, Dharma is finished. Dharma starts only when we go into the meditation room, and when we come out of the meditation room, Dharma is stopped. It should not be like that, because we will then experience conflict, especially if our life is very busy and we don’t have much time to sit in our meditation room and meditate, recite prayers, or read scriptures. Most of the hours of our day will not become Dharma. We will not be able to integrate Dharma into our life. Dharma will then become only a few minutes in the shrine room of the temple in the morning or on Sundays. It then looks as if Dharma is stuck in the temple.

It is very important that the time we spend outside the temple, the time we spend walking, sitting, sleeping, or doing our job, becomes Dharma because out of twenty-four hours we spend very little time in the meditation room or temple. Even if our actions in the meditation room do become Dharma, the time we spend there is very short, and we spend so many hours on other things. Most of our time is spent outside the meditation room. If we cannot transform our actions outside the meditation room into Dharma, so much of our life will be wasted. So much of our life will be used for nonvirtue, for creating the causes of the sufferings of hell beings, hungry ghosts, and animals. Our life will pass creating the causes of suffering.

In order to be able to integrate our work and other everyday activities with Dharma, we have to know what Dharma means. Dharma has to do with the mind, with the motivation. A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life says:

If you don’t realize the secret of the mind, the supreme Dharma,
You will wander in samsara without purpose.
Therefore, I must protect well my mind.

The phrase protect well my mind refers to the practice of mindfulness. By watching our mind and being mindful of our motivation in everyday life, we are able to recognize what is Dharma and what is not Dharma, what is virtue and what is nonvirtue. When we are able to recognize the nonvirtuous, or non-Dharma, mind, we can then transform it into Dharma by applying the meditations. Like taking medicine when we are sick, by applying meditation techniques, we can transform our own mind from the cause of suffering into the cause of happiness. When our mind becomes nonvirtuous, we apply meditations and transform our mind into Dharma, the cause of all happiness, up to enlightenment.

If our motivation from morning until night is renunciation of samsara, every action we do—walking, sitting, sleeping, eating, or meditating—becomes a cause to achieve liberation from samsara, ultimate happiness for self. If instead our motivation is only attachment to samsaric happiness and perfections, which in reality are only suffering, all the actions we do every day become causes of samsara. With this attitude of clinging to temporary samsaric pleasures, all our activities become causes to again be born in samsara.

If we live our life twenty-four hours a day with a motivation of bodhicitta, all the actions that we do each day, including sleeping, walking, eating, sitting, and meditating, become causes of our enlightenment. Our actions also become causes of enlightenment for other sentient beings, because they enable us to bring sentient beings to enlightenment. If we live our life with the opposite of bodhicitta, self-cherishing thought, we do everything only for our own happiness, which then becomes an obstacle to our achieving enlightenment.

If we live our life twenty-four hours a day with awareness of emptiness, of the reality of things, all our actions become a remedy to cut the root of samsara. With awareness of the nature of subject, action, and object, with awareness of emptiness and dependent arising, all our actions done with right view become a remedy to cut the root of samsara, the root of all suffering.

Happiness doesn’t come from outside; it has to come from our own mind. As suffering comes from our mind, happiness also comes from our mind. We can obtain happiness from our own mind. The main cause of suffering is the nonvirtuous mind, which creates the external conditions for sufferings, for problems. The cause of happiness is the virtuous mind. Once a cause of happiness has been created by you and is there within your mental continuum, it creates the conditions for happiness. That’s how you experience happiness.

In Western culture, disease and other external conditions of suffering are regarded as the main cause of suffering. What is described as a main cause of suffering is, according to reality or to experience, merely a condition. That is not the main cause. The main cause, which creates that condition, is within our own mind.

Happiness and suffering have to do with virtuous and nonvirtuous actions, or positive and negative karma. Karma is one’s own thought. Karma is the action of intention of one’s own mind. As far as the characteristics of karma are concerned, karma is definite. If you do the action of killing out of ignorance, anger, attachment, or any other disturbing thought, it is definite that you will experience the result of suffering. Any action of killing done out of a disturbing thought becomes a nonvirtue, a negative karma, and from this you will definitely experience four suffering results.

Even though you are born in the human realm, you experience a short life. You might die in your mother’s womb. The consciousness might take place, then leave after a few minutes or even a few seconds. You are unable to live a long time. You experience a short life and cancer and other diseases. That is experiencing the result similar to the cause.

Another suffering result is creating the result similar to the cause. After some time, even if you have been born in the human realm, you again do the action of killing again. You again create the negative karma of killing out of disturbing thoughts.

The third type of suffering, the possessed result, has to do with the place. Due to the negative karma of killing, in the place where you are born, medicine doesn’t have the power to heal. Food and drink also don’t have much protein and are difficult to digest. There are many problems with digestion. The food and other things also become conditions for disease. These are the results of killing.

The fourth result is the ripening aspect result, which means that you take rebirth in the hell, hungry ghost, or animal realm in dependence upon the heaviness of the actions of killing. The heaviest actions result in rebirth in hell; lighter ones in the hungry ghost realm; and even lighter ones in the animal realm.

If you live in a vow not to kill, you receive four results of happiness. Having a long life, like people who are able to live for a hundred years or even longer, is experiencing the result similar to the cause. Good health and a long life are the results of living in a vow not to kill. Creating the result similar to the cause means that in your next life you again live in a vow not to kill. The possessed result is that the place where you live has a healthy environment and there’s no danger to life. Food and drink have much protein and don’t cause disease. The ripening aspect result is rebirth with the body of a happy migratory being, as a deva or a human being. If you create the good karma of living in the morality of not killing, you will definitely experience these four results of happiness.

If you commit the negative karma of stealing, out of ignorance, anger, or attachment, you experience four suffering results. Even if you are born in a human realm, you are born poor, with much difficulty obtaining the means of living. Even if you have possessions, you have very few.

We should know that any of these undesirable things we experience in this life from time to time is the result of negative karma. And we should recognize that any good thing, any happiness, that we experience is due to our past good karma from living in the vow not to kill, not to tell lies, not to steal, and so forth. As I go through the results, you should recognize this.

Poverty in this life is the result of the past-life karma of stealing. Even if you have possessions, you have to share them with other people; you don’t own them completely by yourself nor do you have complete freedom to use them. Even if you have wealth, other people steal or confiscate it. And even if nobody steals from you, you lose things. This is experiencing the result similar to the cause of the past karma of stealing.

Creating the result similar to the cause means that you again steal. The possessed result, which has to do with the place, is that you are born in a place where crops don’t grow. If crops are planted, they either don’t grow or grow only a little. And even if crops do grow, they are eaten by worms or other animals or destroyed by hailstorms, floods, or bad weather. Even if crops grow, you are unable to enjoy them. All these are the possessed result of stealing. These are the four suffering results of the negative karma of stealing.

Living in a vow not to steal has four results of happiness. The ripening aspect result is rebirth with a deva or human body. Experiencing the result similar to the cause means that you are wealthy; you easily find good jobs that give you enough money to live in comfort, with many enjoyments. Those are the results of the good karma of living in the morality of abandoning stealing. Creating the result similar to the cause means that in your next life you again live in the morality of not stealing. The possessed result is that you are born in a place where crops grow well, without any obstacles, and there are no famines. Everything is very rich.

When we experience these kinds of good things in our life, they are the results of our past good karma of living in the morality of not stealing. We should recognize this and rejoice. And we should recognize the problems we experience as the result of the past negative karma of stealing. We should then make our mind strong by thinking, “Therefore, I should live in the morality of abandoning stealing.” By realizing their shortcomings, you strengthen your determination to abandon the causes of suffering, such as stealing, and to take the vow not to steal. In this way you are preparing for the happiness of this life and of future lives.

For sexual misconduct done out of ignorance, anger, or attachment, the ripening aspect result is rebirth in the hell, hungry ghost, or animal realm. Experiencing the result similar to the cause is that the people around you disturb you, and you cannot trust them. In a family, the wife cannot trust her husband and the husband cannot trust his wife. Your companion is not harmonious with you and leaves you. This disharmony and all the other things are experiencing the result similar to the cause of past-life sexual misconduct, which is nonvirtuous because of the attitude.

Creating the result similar to the cause means that you again engage in sexual misconduct in your next lives. Even when you are again born as a human being, you continue to create that negative karma. The possessed result is that the place where you live is muddy, dirty, and unhealthy. When we experience any of these problems in this life, we should realize that it’s the result of our past negative karma of sexual misconduct.

By living in the morality of abandoning sexual misconduct, we receive the resultant four happiness. We have harmonious relationships. In our family, people trust each other and there’s no competitiveness. Others are harmonious with us and do what we wish.

Creating the result similar to the cause means that in your next life, when you are again born as a human being, you again live in the morality of abandoning sexual misconduct. The possessed result is that you live in a clean, beautiful place. In our life, for example, we are able to live in a clean, beautiful house and to enjoy beautiful gardens as the result of our past good karma of having lived in the morality of abandoning sexual misconduct. From time to time in our life when we are in a filthy place, we’re experiencing the result of our past negative karma of sexual misconduct.

Telling a lie out of one of the poisonous minds of ignorance, anger, or attachment makes telling the lie a nonvirtue, so we again experience four suffering results. The ripening aspect result is rebirth in the lower realms. Experiencing the result similar to the cause is that other people lie to you and cheat you. Even when you sincerely ask other people for help or guidance, they tell you lies and cheat you.

Creating the result similar to the cause is again doing the action of telling lies when you are born as a human. The possessed result is that you are born in a place where there is a lot of cheating.

If you have lived in the morality of abandoning telling lies, other people don’t lie to you or cheat you. Other people also trust your words. Sometimes, even if you tell the truth, other people think you’re telling lies. That is the result of the past-life karma of telling lies. So, other people believe your words, and they don’t cheat you. You are born in a place where there is no danger of cheating or deceit. Creating the result similar to the cause means that in your future life you accumulate merit by again living in the morality of not telling lies. The ripening aspect result is a deva or human rebirth.

Another result of the past karma of telling lies is that if you start a business, whether it is a farm, a shipping business, a restaurant, or a hotel, instead of developing more and more, it starts to fail. This lack of success is the result of the past karma of telling lies.

Rather than going over the three negative karmas related to the mind, I’ll just explain ill will. Ill will results in rebirth in the lower realms. Experiencing the result similar to the cause means that other people do things that you don’t like and that hurt you. Instead of benefiting you, other people harm you. When you have helped someone and, while you are expecting them to help you, they harm you in return, this is the result of your own past-life karma of ill will.

Generating ill will again is creating the result similar to the cause. The possessed result is that when you are born as a human being, you are born in a place where there are a lot of contagious diseases and many other harms, such as fighting, war, and people harming you with black magic. There are also many insects, such as mosquitoes, that bite you and many animals, such as poisonous snakes, that harm you. There are also many thieves. Being born in such a harmful place is the result of the past karma of ill will. When there are a lot of mosquitoes or other insects biting us, we should remember that it’s the result of our own past karma of having ill will toward these sentient beings in the past. As a result of that, we are now receiving this harm from them.

If we live in the morality of abandoning ill will, we receive four resultant happiness. We take rebirth as a deva or a human being. Creating the result similar to the cause means that we again abandon ill will. Experiencing the result similar to the cause means that other beings don’t harm us. Even if there are mosquitoes, poisonous snakes, or other dangerous animals, we don’t receive harm from them. Also, we don’t receive harm from other people. People always help us. This is the result of our past-life karma of living in the morality of abandoning ill will.

The conclusion is that any problem we experience comes from our own mind and any happiness we experience also comes from our own mind. Any success we have comes from our own mind, from our positive attitudes, and any failure we have also comes from our own mind, from our negative attitudes.

When you take a picture, it leaves various figures on the negative. Afterward, when the film is put into a projector and the electricity is turned on, it can be projected onto a movie of TV screen. We experience karma in a similar way. Ignorance, anger, attachment, or another of the disturbing thoughts motivates negative karma, which leaves an imprint on the mind. The ten nonvirtues are not the only negative karmas, just some examples; there are many other negative karmas. So, karma motivated by one of the disturbing thoughts leaves an imprint on the mind, like an imprint left on a film. When, because of causes and conditions, this imprint becomes very powerful, we experience problems. When the imprint left on the consciousness becomes stronger, it is then manifested out and experienced at that time. If it’s a positive imprint, we experience some happiness or success.

From rebirth until death, everything—our own body, our senses, all the objects of our senses, beautiful, ugly, or indifferent—is manifested, or projected, from an imprint left on our consciousness by our past karma. Therefore, from rebirth until death, everything that appears to us in our daily life from morning until night has to do with our mind. Without the mind, nothing would appear to us. All sense objects have to do with the view of our mind. When we go to a shop or a supermarket, all the billions of different things that we see have to do with our view. Any beautiful, ugly, or indifferent thing that we see has to do with our view. The view we have of the many billions of beautiful, ugly, and indifferent objects in the supermarket came from our mind. Our view is the production of our mind.

It is the same when we see a beautiful garden or a dirty place, a beautiful person or an ugly or indifferent person. Our body, our senses, the objects of our senses—everything we see is our view, and it is the projection of our mind. Our view has to do with our own mind, with the level of our own mind. If our mind is impure, we see things as impure. If our mind is pure, we see things as pure. How we see things—as beautiful or ugly, as good or bad—depends on how we look at them. If we look at them as good, we see them as good; if we look at them as bad, we see them as bad. However, it has also to do with our momentary concepts in daily life. How people and things appears to us depends on how we look at, or interpret, them, as friend, enemy, or stranger, as good or bad, and this has to do with our concepts from moment to moment. If we look at them as pure, we see them as pure.

Everything that appears to us from morning until night, everything that we see, comes from our mind. All the things in our view are the manifestations of imprints. From rebirth until death, everything we see and every feeling we get about what we see—such as a pleasant feeling on seeing a beautiful object and an unpleasant feeling on seeing an ugly object—comes from our consciousness, because the consciousness carries the imprint. How we look at things, how we interpret things, also has to do with our concepts in daily life.

If we are angry with someone, thinking that person has harmed us, we see them as our enemy. But if we look at that person with patience, we don’t see them as our enemy, but as our best friend. We see them as the kindest person. If we have anger, we find external enemies. If we don’t have anger within us, we don’t find any external enemy. Even if someone is angry with us and criticizing, harming, or even killing us, if we don’t have anger, we don’t find them our enemy.

Everything came from our own consciousness. Not only that, but everything came from our own karma, which is intention, which accompanies the principal consciousness. So, this is our own mind. Everything came from karma. All the undesirable things came from our own negative intention, or negative karma; all the good things came from our own positive intention, or karma. Not only this, but all these things, including our body, our senses, and the objects of our senses, came from ignorance, the very root of samsara. All the forms, sounds, smells, and so forth that our senses experience came from ignorance, and ignorance is our own mind. Again, all this came from our own mind.

Therefore, there’s nothing to blame on other sentient beings. There’s nothing to get angry about with other sentient beings. The sentient being who is angry with you and harms you is only an object of compassion. Why? Because in the past you have harmed them, and that is what has made them harm you in this life. Therefore, you yourself have made them harm you. You have caused them to create bad karma by harming you. That other sentient being has no freedom at all. They are completely overwhelmed by ignorance, anger, or attachment and by past karma. They are only an object of compassion. Those who criticize you or harm you with black magic are only objects of compassion.

At the moment most of us are experiencing good health, but while we are driving along the road in our car, somebody could suddenly shoot and kill us. It’s not that you’ve done anything to them in this life. It just happens. Somebody comes along and suddenly beats you or shoots you. Suddenly your life changes. There was happiness before, but suddenly there is suffering. At such times, one of the many different imprints left on our consciousness by past negative karmas has suddenly manifested.

In a similar way, you might have had good relationships within your family for a long time, but one day everything suddenly changes. Your partner suddenly turns completely negative and dislikes you. It happens all of a sudden one day. Or you might be healthy, with no expectation of having any problems, when suddenly you have a stroke and are paralyzed. You’re strong and healthy in the morning, but suddenly in the afternoon you’re in a hospital having an operation. Because nothing was done to purify the imprint left by past negative karma, it is still there and suddenly manifests.

Before we experience the suffering results, we have the freedom to purify their causes. Before experiencing rebirth in the hell, hungry ghost, or animal realm or before experiencing poverty, diseases such as cancer and AIDS, failure in business, relationship problems and all the other problems in this life, we have the freedom to purify the causes. The other point is that if we generate the remedy of the path, which removes all the imprints, we will never have to experience suffering, including death and rebirth.

A solution that stops the experience of problems is perfect confession. With confession perfected with the remedy of the four powers, you can purify all the causes of problems. AIDS, cancer, failure in business, and all other problems have to do with imprints left by past negative karmas. Before experiencing the results of rebirth in the lower realms and so forth, we have the freedom to stop experiencing them by purifying the negative karmas with confession perfected by the remedy of the four powers.

Otherwise, not only is karma definite to be experienced, but it is expandable. For example, if we cheat another sentient being one time, we get cheated by other sentient beings for a thousand lifetimes. There are many sutra stories about how karma is expandable, as well as stories from the present time. Cheating one sentient being one time is so easy to do, but the result is that you get cheated by other sentient beings for one thousand lifetimes. It is unbearable to be cheated even one time by another sentient being, so there would be no way we could bear to be cheated for a thousand lifetimes by other sentient beings.

When someone treats us badly over many days, months, or years, we think, “What did I do to them? Why don’t they treat me well? Why have they tortured me for so many years?” However, this is nothing. If we retaliate and harm them in return, or kill that person, we’re making it much worse. If we can’t bear a few days, months, or years of this person treating us badly, how could we bear to be harmed by others for many lifetimes or many thousands or millions of lifetimes? There is no way we could bear it. It’s very, very important not to get caught up so much in this life. If someone harms you, it’s very important to think about long-term harm and happiness, that of all your future lives. In this way, you can act skillfully, or wisely. By refraining from the one negative karma of harming someone, you don’t then receive harm from others, and you receive much happiness in many thousands of future lives.

Another point is to remember every day the sufferings of the hell, hungry ghost, and animals realms. In everyday life it is very important to remember the sufferings of the eight hot hells, the eight cold hells, and the branch hells; to remember the three types of preta suffering: outer obscurations, inner obscurations, and food obscurations; to remember the foolishness of animals, how they eat one another, and how they suffer from heat, cold, torture, and many other things. It is very, very important to remember this in everyday life as it gives you strength for practice. Remembering and meditating on those sufferings every day stops laziness. It gives you strength in your mind and keeps you doing more and more practice. With a powerful mind you can stop negative karmas. You become brave in abandoning negative karmas and are able to practice morality, creating good karma. In this way since you do not create obstacles, there’s not much obscuration. You are able to develop your mind more quickly in the path to enlightenment and achieve realizations.

Karma is expandable. Also, if you haven’t created the karma, you don’t experience the result. And once you have created karma, its result is never lost. It is very, very important to know this.

No matter how much we talk, talk, talk about Dharma or how much we listen, listen, listen, the essential point is: What do we do now? Even if we have listened to the entire sutra and tantra teachings and know them all by heart, what we should do right now is take care of our closest, greatest problem: rebirth in the hell, hungry ghost, or animal realms. It could happen at any moment.

One solution is to purify all our past negative karmas. Another solution is to stop creating negative karma again. If we don’t stop creating negative karma again by living in morality, our purification has no end. We will never finish reciting Vajrasattva mantras and doing other purification practices. On top of purification, we should also live in the vows, or morality, of abandoning negative karmas. It is most important to practice these two things, and to do it immediately. Even if we know the entire teaching by heart, this is the practical thing we should immediately do to protect ourselves and to benefit other sentient beings. This is the foundation of all the realizations up to enlightenment.

We should protect as much as possible the lay vows we have taken. If we have degenerated our vows, or even broken them, we can take them again. We can also take the Eight Mahayana Precepts, which are for one day, at least once a month, and more times if possible. This will give us confidence that when death comes, we will not be born in the lower realms but will receive a deva or human body or be born in the pure land of a buddha. It will make you confident you have created the cause to receive a good rebirth in your next life. Whether you know a little or a lot about Dharma, whether you meditate or don’t meditate, taking the Eight Mahayana Precepts is the thing to do. They are the real solution.

The other thing is to do confession with the remedy of the four powers, such as with the Vajrasattva practice. The power of reliance is taking refuge and generating bodhicitta. The power of repentance, or regret, means feeling regret by thinking of the shortcomings of negative karma, how it interferes with realizations and results in the suffering of samsara, especially of the lower realms. The power of always keeping the body, speech, and mind in virtuous conduct means reciting mantras, doing prostrations, and the other things we do to create virtue. The other power is making a promise not to commit the negative karma again.

After you have finished reciting one mala, twenty-one or however many Vajrasattva mantras you do, before Vajrasattva absorbs into you, you make a promise not to commit the negative karmas again. “From now on I will keep the vows that are easy for me to keep. The subtle vows, like the bodhisattva or tantric vows, which are very difficult for me to keep, I will protect for one day, one hour, one minute, or even a few seconds.” Since you can accumulate virtue by meditating on bodhicitta or emptiness or doing tantric practice for a few seconds, it does not become telling a lie. It is more truthful.

After that, Vajrasattva absorbs within you, and you then meditate on emptiness for a little while, thinking, “In emptiness, there’s no I, there’s no action, there’s no negative karma, there are no lower realms. In emptiness, there’s nothing.” Meditating on emptiness again brings very powerful purification.

Confession also contains the practice of refuge, but I don’t have time to give a detailed explanation of refuge at this time.

If you don’t do a confession practice, such as reciting Vajrasattva mantras, the negative karma you accumulated today becomes double tomorrow, then triple the next day. If we kill one tiny insect today, after fifteen days it becomes the same heavy karma as having killed one human being. After eighteen days, if you don’t purify with the Vajrasattva mantra, it is multiplied by 131,072. I don’t remember the exact details.

Why do we practice Vajrasattva? Broken bodhisattva vows can be purified by doing the Thirty-five Buddhas’ practice. If you have taken a tantric initiation and you broke your tantric vows today, by doing the practice of the Highest Yoga Tantra aspect of Vajrasattva, with the father and mother unified, you can purify even degenerated tantric vows, and the negative karma doesn’t double by the next day, triple by the following day, and so forth. If you do Vajrasattva practice, the negative karmas don’t increase, and all your past negative karmas also get purified.

To do Vajrasattva practice, you recite the long mantra twenty-one times or the short mantra, OM VAJRASATTVA HUM, twenty-eight times every day. This stops the multiplying of negative karmas day by day and purifies other past negative karmas. If you recite one mala of the Vajrasattva mantra, of course even the root falls are purified. You can purify having broken root bodhisattva and tantric vows. The practice of the Vajrasattva mantra with the remedy of the four powers is very important. It is one practical solution that stops obstacles to realizations and rebirth in the lower realms, and even the problems of this life.

I will give the oral transmission of the Vajrasattva mantra. Think, “I’m going to take the oral transmission of the Vajrasattva mantra in order to achieve enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings.”

[Rinpoche gives the oral transmission of the long and short Vajrasattva mantras.]

The main thing is bodhicitta, living your life with bodhicitta. The most important thing is to do your work every day with a bodhicitta motivation, which transforms all your actions into causes of enlightenment. If done with bodhicitta, all your activities become causes of enlightenment. Starting from when you wake up in the morning, you should generate a motivation of bodhicitta, wishing to achieve enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. For that reason, you then do all your activities. When we wake up in the morning, the first thing we should do is to generate the virtuous motivation of bodhicitta so that all our activities, Dharma practice, work, and everything else, become Dharma, or virtue. Everything then becomes a cause of enlightenment, and we accumulate infinite merit.

Another thing is to practice rejoicing. We rejoice in our own merit of the three times and in the merit of other sentient beings, bodhisattvas, and buddhas. Rejoicing in our own merit of the three times increases our merit, so that we accumulate more merit than we have actually created. Each time we rejoice our merit, or good karma, increases; it doubles. It is like investing money in a bank or in the stock market. This is the simplest, easiest practice, involving only the mind thinking to rejoice, but it accumulates infinite merit. We should also rejoice in the merit of other sentient beings and especially of the bodhisattvas and buddhas.

By rejoicing, we accumulate infinite merit, and the more merit we accumulate, the closer we become to enlightenment. We achieve enlightenment more quickly, which means we will be able to bring sentient beings to enlightenment more quickly. That is the whole point. While we are eating, while we are working, while we are walking, we should rejoice in all the merit of the three times accumulated by ourselves, other sentient beings, bodhisattvas, and buddhas. Practicing rejoicing is most important if you want to have success in your Dharma practice. For any success, any happiness, you need to create good karma. Without good karma, you can’t do anything; without good karma, without merit, you can’t have success. Since accumulating merit is so important, we should rejoice.

The third important thing is dedication. If you don’t dedicate merit properly, even if you accumulate much merit, you could experience that merit in the animal realm as a wealthy naga. The proper, best way to dedicate merit is to dedicate it to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings. Dedicating your merit in this way benefits all sentient beings, bringing them to enlightenment. If you dedicate your merit to achieve enlightenment, the merit that you accumulated and dedicated becomes inexhaustible. It never finishes, just as one drop of water put into the ocean never finishes until the ocean finishes. If you dedicate even one small merit for you to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings, that merit becomes unceasing, and you can enjoy the result of that merit until enlightenment. Even after that, you can then bring all sentient beings to enlightenment. All this is the result of dedicating merit for enlightenment. You can experience the result of the merit that is dedicated to enlightenment forever.

A very important point when you dedicate merit is to dedicate it in the purest way, by sealing it with emptiness. This is a pure dedication, unstained by the concept of true existence. Otherwise, negative thoughts of anger or heresy can later destroy the merit. You put so much effort for weeks and months to create the merit, but it can then be destroyed by generating anger and heresy. Sealing the dedication with emptiness gives great protection, like putting your money or possessions in a safe place. Anger and heresy cannot destroy our merit if we dedicate the merit by sealing it with emptiness.

How do we do this? “Due to all the past, present, and future merits accumulated by me and all the merits of the three times accumulated by all other beings, which are empty from their own side, may the I, who is empty from its own side, achieve enlightenment, which is empty from its own side, and lead all sentient beings, who are empty from their own side, to enlightenment, which is empty from its own side.”

We should dedicate the merit in the purest way, by sealing it with emptiness.

Also, please dedicate the merit that all of us be able to actualize the graduated path to enlightenment in this life. May all the members of Amitabha Centre, those who put much effort and dedication into service and all those who contribute, as well as all the other students and all other sentient beings, have long and healthy lives, be able to actualize the graduated path to enlightenment in this life, and quickly achieve enlightenment.

May Amitabha Centre be able to benefit all sentient beings by spreading the pure Buddhadharma, and receive all the necessary conditions for that without any obstacles. Please dedicate that Amitabha Centre be able to cause all sentient beings to generate bodhicitta in their minds.

So, I would like to say thank you very much. This time I did not finish much teaching, but I hope I can do more on refuge and karma next time. For Amitabha Centre to continue to give lam-rim teachings, the essence of the whole Buddhadharma, I would like to make just a symbolic contribution of three thousand Singapore dollars towards a new house. This is just a symbolic contribution to continuing the Dharma activity, spreading the lam-rim teaching.

That’s all. Thank you so much.