Perfect Freedom: The Great Value of Being Human

By Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Dharamsala, India September 1984 (Archive #017)

A lightly edited transcript of teachings given in September 1984 at Tushita Retreat Centre, Dharamsala, India. Edited by Ailsa Cameron. Originally published as a transcript by Wisdom Publications.

Download a Chinese version (pdf) translated by Lobsang Dhargyey.

Chapter 8: Living With Bodhicitta

The statues in Bodhgaya advised Lama Atisha that the quick way to achieve enlightenment is to practice bodhicitta. To train the mind in the ultimate good heart, bodhicitta, is also the best method for quick and extensive purification of negative karmas and extensive accumulation of merit in order to achieve enlightenment. Even if you know by heart all the secret, profound teachings of the first and second stages of tantra, and can explain them extensively, and even if you practice them, without bodhicitta this does not become the cause of enlightenment. You may be able to generate heat and bring the drop down, but these are general attainments, experienced even by Hindus, who do not have refuge in their minds. Without bodhicitta, nothing in tantric practice becomes the cause of enlightenment.

There are many stories of meditators who spent their life meditating on tantra, generating themselves as a deity such as Yamantaka, and were then born as pretas similar in aspect to their visualized deity. This happened due to their unskillful tantric practice. They focused only on tantra and forgot the lam-rim practices of renunciation, bodhicitta and emptiness. Without lam-rim practice or realizations, they practiced deity meditation and were born as very powerful, terrifying pretas. Lama Atisha told the story of one meditator who practiced Hevajra tantra. He meditated on the generation stage, which is supposed to make it quicker to achieve enlightenment, but instead fell into the Hinayana path.

The way to make extremely meaningful this precious human body qualified with eight freedoms and ten richnesses, with which you can achieve the three great purposes, is by training your mind in bodhicitta. To make this precious human body most meaningful and most beneficial for yourself and all other sentient beings, train your mind in bodhicitta. You should not think that by doing some practice other than bodhicitta, you can achieve enlightenment quicker and complete the works for yourself and others.

After meditating on the three great purposes you can accomplish with this perfect human rebirth, meditate like this: "Every day from my birth until now, all the actions of my body, speech and mind have been done out of the selfish attitude, following worldly concern. None of these actions will become the cause of enlightenment, so I have wasted them. I have wasted so much of this highly meaningful perfect human rebirth."

Again, try to feel that this is a greater loss than losing diamonds equaling the number of atoms of this earth. Try to feel an incredible loss. "So far, all the actions of my body, speech and mind have not become even the cause of liberation, because they have been done out of attachment and the dissatisfied mind. I have wasted so much of my highly meaningful perfect human rebirth. So far, none of my everyday actions have even become holy Dharma, the cause of happiness in future lives. My actions haven't even become the cause of happiness. I have wasted so much of my meaningful perfect human rebirth."

Even though we are trying to practice Dharma, it is very difficult for our actions to become holy Dharma. Most of our normal actions of sitting, walking, eating and sleeping do not become Dharma. Meditate like this on how much of our life has been wasted, how our actions have not even become Dharma. "If I had been practicing correctly and continuously from the time I met the virtuous friend and received lam-rim teachings up to now, after so many years I would have generated bodhicitta, or at least renunciation of samsara. By now I would have reached the first, if not the second, stage of tantra."

Thinking of how we have wasted our time an and not made any progress makes us more aware of how we live our life. We should be sure to make our life meaningful through practicing Dharma and thus have accomplishment in this life. As Kunnu Lama Rinpoche explains in Admiring Bodhicitta:

When you eat, eat with bodhicitta. When you stand, stand with bodhicitta. When you sit, sit with bodhicitta. When you sleep, sleep with bodhicitta. When you look, look with bodhicitta. When you speak, speak with bodhicitta.

During the entire twenty-four hours, every action you do should be done out of bodhicitta, not for yourself but for others. Do every action - meditating or whatever - out of bodhicitta. As much as possible, try to make every action become a remedy to self-cherishing thought. If your daily actions oppose self- cherishing thought, they become the cause of a good rebirth and whatever happiness you wish in your next life, the cause of liberation from samsara, and the cause of enlightenment, which is the greatest advantage. All your actions then become Dharma. If your actions are against self-cherishing thought, they become the method to achieve all success. As long as your actions do not oppose self-cherishing thought, even if they are not done out of worldly concern and become holy Dharma, they are of limited advantage and bring limited happiness.

We should focus our whole life on this point. We should plan to live our life with this attitude, then all temporal and ultimate success will follow. All your wishes and those of others succeed because of this attitude. Whether you wish to have quick realization of the path or peace of mind and fewer problems in your everyday life, doing all your actions out of bodhicitta (which means opposing self-cherishing thought) is the most important and skillful practice. This one solution cuts off so many problems, both for you and for others.

Making your life meaningful

To make your life most meaningful and beneficial, live your life with bodhicitta, the ultimate good heart. Try to do every action during the entire day with the ultimate good heart of bodhicitta. Even if you cannot practice bodhicitta, the altruistic mind wishing to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings, as much as possible try to live your life with a generous, good heart. The ultimate good heart is the thought seeking enlightenment in order to work for other sentient beings. Even if you are not doing the profound practice of the ultimate good heart, it is important if you have a job not simply to think: "I'm doing this work to survive. I need the money for food - I have to eat." If you live your life with this attitude, you are thinking about nothing other than yourself; it shows no concern for others. Among all the sentient beings, you are thinking about nothing except this one sentient being - and that is not even another person, but yourself!

With the attitude that you are working just to survive, your mind is not happy or relaxed. If you look at it, it's not a comfortable attitude, but painful and sad. Being concerned only about yourself, doing everything for your own happiness, is the principal cause of depression. All the problems of depression and aggression that lead you to depend on a psychiatrist or psychologist, making your life expensive, come from the selfish attitude. The selfish attitude also makes you busier, because you then have to earn the money to pay for the psychiatrist and so forth.

At this time you have a human body, not the body of an animal such as a pig or a horse. You have taken a superior rebirth with an incredible capacity to think and to perform superior actions, which animals and lower beings cannot do. You have much potential to think in a better way, and have the opportunity to benefit all sentient beings. It is not simply a matter of attitude; a precious human body actually can benefit all sentient beings. To have taken such a precious body that, unlike the bodies of other beings, can offer incredible benefit to others, and have an attitude that is not even superior to an animal's is very sad. With such a poor attitude, your life is not happy.

Even if you cannot generate compassion for all beings, when you get out of bed, dress, and get ready to go to work, at least think in this way: "My survival today comes from my employers. Because they have given me a job and money, I have all these comforts and enjoyments. My ability to survive as a human being and benefit others comes from the kindness of my employers. Even though I have an education, if they hadn't given me this job, I would have been in trouble. They are extremely kind."

Then think to repay their kindness: "I want happiness and don't want suffering, as do my employers. We are the same. As they want my help, I want their help. As I am dependent on their help, they are dependent on my help. Their happiness depends on me. If I need their help, they should help me. So why shouldn't I help them? They work for me, so why don't I work for them?"

Think: "I am going to do this job because I need to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. Because I need the necessary conditions to practice Dharma, I am going to do this job." The work itself is then done completely for other sentient beings. Even if you cannot think of the highest goal of enlightenment, of working for all sentient beings, at least think: "I am going to do this work to obtain happiness for these particular sentient beings, who want happiness and don't want suffering, exactly like me. I am going to work to bring them happiness."

Then feel happy and rejoice: "How wonderful it is that these sentient beings find my life and body useful in stopping their problems and obtaining their happiness." Generate happiness, rather than being so concerned about yourself, always thinking: "I don't have this, I don't have that - I should have it!" By thinking like this, you create your own depression and aggression. This unskillful way of thinking unnecessarily fills your mind with aggression and depression instead of happiness. Passing your life with constant problems and unhappiness for one day, two days, three days, one week, one month, one year, comes from your way of thinking. The whole thing depends on your attitude.

Instead of beginning the day with worry and self-concern, with the thought that if you don't go to work you won't get any money, get up happily. Think: "I am going to work to obtain happiness for these sentient beings and to prevent their problems. They want happiness and don't want suffering, just as I do. How wonderful it is that I can benefit at least some sentient beings. Even though I can't benefit all sentient beings, who equal the infinite sky, my life and limbs at least benefit some sentient beings. How wonderful it is that I am able to make them happy!"

Constantly practice awareness of this when you are getting up at home, driving to the office and while you are working there. Of course if you work for a large group of people, there is no question that you should feel happier because you are working for more sentient beings. But even if you are working for just one sentient being, you can still rejoice: "This human body is not useless. It is benefiting one sentient being, helping him to achieve happiness. This is great!"

By remembering the kindness of others, you are very happy and relaxed, and there is no depression. Because you are happy when you are at home, and even when you come to the office, you help create a very happy environment. Because you have a very peaceful mind, with loving kindness and concern for others, when you come to the office, other people who are depressed become happy when they see you. It is no help at all when they are depressed if you are also depressed. It simply makes everyone more depressed. Your being happy and relaxed makes others feel good and changes their minds. At least, this is how it should be with the people with whom you work.

Even though the work is the same, one unskillful way of thinking brings unbelievable problems into your life, making your life into a hell; another skillful way of thinking brings many different levels of happiness. You can create this happiness with the wisdom understanding Dharma. If you have an attitude of loving kindness towards a group of people - or at least one person - because you are more concerned about them and not so concerned about yourself, jealousy, anger and so forth and all other problems are lessened.

In regard to doing every activity with bodhicitta, there is another story about Gen Jampa Wangdu, who is a heart son, a very close disciple, of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and who is also my teacher. One day Gen Jampa Wangdu came here to Tushita to see Lama Yeshe and me. Gen Rinpoche told us that one day in his room he checked up to see how many years it had been since he had asked other people for anything for himself - it had been ten years. When he went to other people, it never concerned himself, always someone else. Isn't that amazing? I think it is incredible!

When he met Gen Jampa Wangdu, most of the time Lama Yeshe would make jokes and put him down, and any of their friends who were ascetic lamas. Lama would always joke: "You people live in a cave with nothing - how can that be ascetic? How can that alone be an ascetic life? The whole world comes to me. I enjoy everything; I have everything." Lama was always joking about and putting down the ascetic meditators.

In the general view, in terms of the Dharma, and particularly the tantric texts that Lama read, the advice he gave in everyday life, his actions, and his hidden practices that nobody outside knew about, Lama Yeshe's practice and realizations are not lower than those of ascetic meditators who have lived many years in mountain caves with no possessions - and perhaps they are even higher. In terms of external appearance, it might seem that Lama Yeshe is not living an ascetic life and not practicing Dharma. Those who don't know Lama well, who don't live with him and know his daily life, might think such things. Older students who have received many tantric teachings from Lama can understand his high level of realizations of second stage tantra. They can figure this out from the effectiveness of his teachings.

When Gen Jampa Wangdu said this about working only for others, Lama simply said: "Oh, that is good." He didn't rate it very highly, just said: "That is good." But from the heart, Lama Yeshe likes Gen Jampa Wangdu very, very much and Gen Jampa Wangdu also has incredible heart-felt respect and admiration for Lama Yeshe, even more so lately. Gen Jampa Wangdu is himself a great practitioner of tantra, with the perfect base of experiences to be labelled "yogi of Vajrayana." He has reached a very high level of the tantric path.

What Gen Jampa Wangdu said is very inspiring and you should use it as an example for your life. If it is possible for ascetic meditators such as Gen Jampa Wangdu to generate bodhicitta, to change their attitude from self-cherishing to cherishing others, and to generate first and second stage tantric realizations, why not you? You are a human being, the same as they are. You have the same gurus and have received the same teachings. There is only a difference if, from your side, you don't practice - that's all.

Even if you do not know about or meditate on lam-rim, even if you do not think of the actual way of training your mind in bodhicitta with the preliminary renunciation of samsara, do everything in your daily life with the thought of loving kindness. Even if you are living in a city like everybody else, take care of your family or work in your job with the thought of loving kindness. Like you, your family are also sentient beings wanting happiness and not wanting suffering. The actual purpose of your life is to eliminate the sufferings of other sentient beings and bring them happiness. Your being alive as a human being is not for yourself but for others.

What you should do, in fact, is purify obscurations and accumulate merit for three countless great aeons by following the path, as Guru Shakyamuni Buddha did. In his lives as a bodhisattva, Buddha offered his holy body, eyes and limbs as charity to other sentient beings, numberless times and in many different places.

One recent lam-rim lineage lama, Je Drubkangpa, who had a cave above Sera Monastery in Tibet, had several gurus, but from one particular guru he received many teachings on bodhicitta; I am not sure whether this was the first guru from whom he received teachings on bodhicitta. It seems that this guru was not a monk, but had long hair rolled up on top of his head and lived in the forest. He wasn't sleek or well-dressed and didn't live in a good house.

One day, from a short distance, Je Drubkangpa saw his lama in the forest, crying. He was reading a scripture and crying very much. And even though he was alone there in the forest, he was giving the "thumbs up" sign a lot, which means "very good." In Tibet, this sign is also used for begging, where it means: "Please give!" or "Please help!" However, it also means "very good."

Not immediately but after some time, Je Drubkangpa asked his guru: "Before, when I saw you crying very much in the forest and giving the "thumbs up" sign, what were you doing? What made you cry?" The lama explained: "The reason I cried was that I was reading Guru Shakyamuni Buddha's life-stories as a bodhisattva."

There are about thirty-four stories of Buddha as a bodhisattva, The Jataka Tales, which tell of how he offered charity to, guided and benefited other sentient beings in many different ways. For example, once there were five hundred traders on a ship that was about to sink. Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, who was then still a bodhisattva who had taken the form of a huge turtle in that life; the turtle lifted up the ship and saved the traders from drowning.

At another time, when thousands and thousands of fish were about to die because they were stranded on a beach, Buddha recited the holy name of The Buddha Having a Jewel Ushnisha: Chom-dän-dä de-zhin-sheg-pa rin-chen tsug-tor chän. If you recite this Buddha's name in the ear of an animal or human, particularly at the time of death, they cannot be born in the realm of the suffering transmigratory beings; it causes them to receive the body of a happy transmigratory being in their next life. When The Buddha Having a Jewel Ushnisha was a bodhisattva, he prayed that simply the recitation of his name would be able to benefit sentient beings and guide them from suffering. By reciting this Buddha's name to the thousands of fish, Guru Shakyamuni Buddha as a bodhisattva saved them from the lower realms.

In another story Buddha offered charity to others of all his limbs, so that only the trunk of his holy body was left. The village people then thought: "Now he doesn't have any limbs, what is the use of him?" - and threw the remaining part of his holy body on the refuse heap. However, even on the refuse heap Buddha did great work for other sentient beings by offering what was left of his body to ants, worms and other creatures. There are many incredible stories of how Shakyamuni Buddha guided sentient beings, even when he was a bodhisattva.

Reading The Jataka Tales, Je Drubkangpa's guru thought: "This Guru Shakyamuni is a mother's son; he was born from a mother - I am also a mother's son. But there is a big difference. He was able to sacrifice himself for the mother sentient beings, and I haven't done anything. We are the same in being mothers' sons, but Guru Shakyamuni has been a very worthy son. He has saved so many sentient beings from suffering, offered much charity and borne much hardships for others. I am also a mother's son, but I haven't done anything worthwhile."

So, reading the stories, Je Drubkangpa's guru was crying very much and making the "thumbs up" sign. He was giving Buddha the "thumbs up" sign to say: "Very good. Very worthy son." He cried very much on seeing the unbelievable dedication Guru Shakyamuni Buddha had for sentient beings and his practice of bodhicitta.

On one of the last times they parted, when Je Drubkangpa was going away to another place, his lama accompanied him a short distance. Je Drubkangpa had already spent years studying in a monastery and had become a geshe, but he had been told by one of his gurus to do retreat and experiment on the path. As they parted, Je Drubkangpa's guru again emphasized: "Don't forget bodhicitta practice. Unless you practice bodhicitta, other paths won't come to anything. Even if they are called "secret" or "the quick path to enlightenment", they won't fulfill your wishes completely." He was saying that without bodhicitta, one cannot achieve the sublime, peerless happiness of enlightenment.

Je Drubkangpa, with some confidence in his own practice and experience of bodhicitta, showed a little of his experience to his guru by saying: "Bodhicitta is a causative phenomenon. I am also a causative phenomenon." For example, with dough mixed from flour and water, you can make many different kinds of food: noodles, chapatis, cakes and so forth. Because it a causative phenomenon, a dependent arising, you can change the dough into many different types of food. In a similar way, Je Drubkangpa is saying, it is possible to change the mind. By creating the cause, one is able to generate the result of bodhicitta within one's heart, just as Guru Shakyamuni Buddha did as a bodhisattva. For three countless great aeons he accumulated extensive merit, then achieved enlightenment and revealed the path in order to liberate sentient beings from all obscurations and lead them to enlightenment.

And this is exactly what we should do. The purpose of our life is to benefit every sentient being. Think: "Even if I cannot sacrifice myself for every sentient being as Guru Shakyamuni Buddha did, how wonderful it is that at least I am able to use my body, speech and mind to benefit my family and make them happy. How fortunate I am! I should actually offer my body as charity to other sentient beings, but at least I am serving this small number of sentient beings and bringing them happiness." You should rejoice from your heart. Whether working in a family, at a Dharma center, in a hospital, or in the community, you should offer service to others with a sincere attitude and good heart, remembering their kindness. In this way your mind will be very happy all the time. Because all your activities will be done with loving kindness and the thought of cherishing others, depression won't arise.

Even if you working for just three people in your family, or even one person, since your work is done with a sincere attitude, with the thought of loving kindness cherishing others, even if you do not know how to transform your actions into virtue, your everyday activities will naturally become virtue. Even if a person has never heard of lam-rim, his everyday activities done with this sincere attitude become pure Dharma. Because they are unstained by self-cherishing thought, these activities are the most difficult to do, but the purest holy Dharma.

Dharma means protecting oneself from suffering, from samsara. If someone is in danger of falling down a precipice, you can save him with ropes. Dharma is the rope that stops a person falling down into the sufferings of the lower realms. Your own virtuous actions, Dharma, protect you from true suffering and true cause of suffering.

Even if someone doesn't know about Buddhadharma or lam-rim teachings, if their everyday life is lived with the thought of cherishing others, it becomes the purest holy Dharma. It is the best protection and the best cause of happiness in this life, and in the lives after this. Otherwise, if all our activities are done with non-virtuous motives, out of selfishness and worldly concern, only for the happiness of ourself and of this life, every activity in the day becomes the cause of suffering, since non-virtue is the cause of suffering and confusion in this life, and in future lives.

Instead of creating the cause of happiness, it sometimes looks as if all our education is used to create negative karma. After he gains a degree, a person may go to an office and work there until he retires. But no matter how many years - even forty! - the person does the job, if his attitude is one of worldly concern, all those years of work become negative karma. Because of the selfish attitude, worldly concern clinging to the happiness of the self and this life arises. If there were no selfish attitude, there would be no space in the mind for worldly concern, as well as the many other disturbing thoughts such as anger.

If the selfish attitude is replaced by loving kindness and bodhicitta, the thought of cherishing others, these other confused minds don't arise. In this way there is much peace and happiness in the person's life. And much happiness and harmony for his family and the other people around him. As a result of his good heart in this life, the person will experience much peace of mind and happiness not only in this life, but in his next life.

If you do your everyday actions with bodhicitta, practicing taking others' sufferings and dedicating your body, possessions and merit to them, you accumulate much merit all the time. Each time you meditate on bodhicitta, or even generate the motivation of bodhicitta, you collect merit equaling the infinite sky. In that minute, by generating the motivation of bodhicitta, even if you don't have the actual realization of bodhicitta, you accumulate infinite merit.

Realizing emptiness quickly

Practicing bodhicitta is also the quick way to realize emptiness. If you wish to realize emptiness, understand Madhyamika philosophy, really experience Nagarjuna's teachings, and realize the meaning of The Heart Sutra, heart of the whole Buddhadharma, the best method is to practice bodhicitta. To realize emptiness, the absolute nature of the self, one has to be extremely fortunate; it is not enough just to be smart or be able to debate well. You can study the teachings, take refuge in the explanations of Lama Tsongkapa, Nagarjuna or Guru Shakyamuni Buddha and parrot what the texts say, but repeating the words of a text is not enough.

To realize emptiness a person needs to create the cause, which means much purification and accumulation of much merit. By doing powerful purification with prostrations or Vajrasattva practice, and meditating, you develop the devotion to see the guru as Buddha and correctly devote yourself to him in thought and action as Buddha taught. When your guru devotion is deep and strong, you then use powerful methods to purify your obscurations and mental defilements. As these become thinner, any lam-rim meditation you do - the graduated paths of the small, intermediate and great scopes; renunciation of samsara, emptiness, bodhicitta - makes much more sense. Your mind becomes extremely soft and pliable, rather than solid as a rock. When you meditate you feel confident that if really tried for some weeks or some months, you could definitely generate the realization of the meditation. You feel this strongly from your heart with every meditation you do. Ideas that were mere words in the beginning, you now feel strongly from your heart.

At this time, even seeing a few words such as "on the vase there is a vase existing from its own side" has an incredible effect, like waking from sleep. At the moment our problem is that we haven't recognized the object to be refuted. If we purify our obscurations, accumulate much merit and develop our guru devotion, even though we haven't studied all the extensive scriptures by Nagarjuna and Chandrakirti, and we don't understand everything, just two or three pages of a teaching on emptiness, or even the words "on the vase there is a vase existing from its own side" are like waking from sleep. We are able to recognize the object to be refuted. Suddenly, after seeing just two or three words, you look at external objects and recognize clearly how things appear to be truly existent. And when you look at the I, you immediately recognize the object to be refuted, that on the I, there is an I that appears to exist from its own side.

In this way it doesn't take long to realize emptiness. Once you have recognized the I existing from its own side, like pressing a button in a lift, everything lights up and works. Once you have recognized the object to be refuted, the I that doesn't exist, even if you don't use the four analyses and all the many logical explanations from Madhyamika philosophy, just concentrate one- pointedly on the I. You see an I existing from its own side, but at the same time you are aware that this is what is actually empty. The object to be refuted, the I existing from its own side, has no choice - it cannot abide. One-pointedly focus right on the I existing from its own side and recognize that this is what the teachings call "the object to be refuted."

Simply remember that the I is a dependent arising. While focusing on this truly existent I, which seems to exist from its own side, be aware that it is empty. Actually, there is no choice - you realize that it is completely empty. Even though ignorance clings to the object to be refuted, if you can see that not even an atom of it exists from its own side, you experience the I to be completely empty. From your own experience, you actually come to know how the I exists. Through realizing unmistakenly that the truly existent I in which you believe doesn't exist, without need to push, you experience how the I actually exists.

You are then able to realize the subtle dependent arising of the I - that the I exists under the control of name, being merely labelled on the aggregates by thought and name. This becomes your own experience, not just words. Before, you were simply imitating the teachings, but when you realize the subtle dependent arising of the I, it is no longer mere words. When you speak of these things, you are talking from your own experience.

Guru devotion: root of the path

It may seem a little strange to hear that you need guru devotion in order to have these realizations. To the ear of someone with a certain type of mind, who has not accumulated much merit or planted many seeds of the teachings, this may sound a little funny. When the guru tells you that you need guru devotion to achieve realizations of the path to enlightenment, it may look as if he is taking advantage of you, as if he is praising himself and asking the disciples to see him as Buddha and make offerings to him. It is very easy to think it strange when you hear this. It looks like worldly politics.

The first time you hear this, especially before you begin to practice Dharma, it seems very strange and almost like some kind of trick. The proof of how realizations, development of the mind and experience of the path depend on the very root of strong, stable guru devotion comes when a person actually practices. A person's own experience answers his questions as to the importance of guru devotion. In his everyday life he can see the difference between the times when he sees the guru as Buddha and devotes himself correctly to him in thought and action, and the times when he does not. When there is no devotion, the mind is like a hot desert where nothing grows.

When the mind is like this, the very root of the whole path does not exist, or is like very thin clouds about to disappear in the sky. Then, no matter how many times you repeat the words, no matter how many different lam-rim or tantric teachings you read or meditations you do, you feel nothing from your heart. Even meditating on impermanence and death becomes just words. Even meditating on renunciation or bodhicitta, you feel nothing from the heart. And with emptiness, your mind is like a rock.

Your own experience gives you the answer. You can understand guru devotion from the life-stories of the lam-rim lineage lamas, which describe how they practiced guru devotion and had incredible realizations, but the actual proof comes from your own experience when meditating on the path.

Relating to lam-rim, Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo explains that if you meditate and achieve realizations of perfect human rebirth, its usefulness and the difficulty of receiving it again, impermanence and death, and karma, all the other realizations come very easily after that, like rainfall or pouring rice from a basket. The rest come very easily once you have these fundamental realizations.

If you find even the meditations from perfect human rebirth up to karma very difficult, with no progress happening in your mind, there is something wrong with the first step, guru devotion. You have to examine what is missing or what mistake you have made in your guru practice. When changing your mind through these basic meditations is very difficult, something is wrong in your practice of the root of the path. You have to examine for mistakes. After recognizing the mistake and correcting your practice, you then need very strong practice of purification.

Many of you may have heard the story of Je Drubkangpa's guru practice. In the beginning, even though he meditated on lam-rim for many years, no progress happened. So he asked one of his gurus: "Why have I been meditating on lam-rim for such a long time with nothing happening?" His guru asked him: "When you visualize the merit field, have you missed any gurus with whom you have had Dharma contact? Have you forgotten anyone in the merit field?" Je Drubkangpa said: "Yes. I have many bad thoughts towards the guru who taught me the alphabet, because he is a disrobed monk. He is the only one I don't visualize." Je Drubkangpa discovered that this guru was missing from his visualization of the merit field. He was then advised by his guru: "You should now visualize that one as the principal guru of the whole merit field. He is Lama Lobsang Tubwang Dorje Chang in the center and the entire merit field is an embodiment of him. Until you develop devotion, keep him as the principal figure of the merit field." After doing this meditation, Je Drubkangpa had no difficulty in generating realizations; they came very easily, one after the other.

Guru devotion as the root of the whole path is like the electricity supply to a city. When no electricity comes from the main power-station, there are no lights in any of the rooms in the whole city. All the elevators, televisions and other enjoyments that depend on electricity are completely stopped. It is easy to understand that all the various enjoyments in the city have come from building that power-station. All these depend on the power- station. A meditator's experience of guru devotion is similar; and this is your own experience, but you don't recognize it. Even though you have met Buddhadharma, you don't remember having met the guru in the past. Even though you are experiencing the result, whether of correct or incorrect devotion to the guru, you are not aware of the past karmas. However, experienced lam-rim meditators are able to recognize and remember these. Just as you can see how all the enjoyments depend on the power-station, meditators with experience of the path to enlightenment see how important it is to practice correct devotion to the guru in thought and action.

Tara advised one Tibetan lama: "Do the bodhicitta practice of tong-len, taking and giving, to develop merit and you will be able to actualize the Middle Way, devoid of the two extremes. Without delay you can then become enlightened." With bodhicitta as the fundamental practice, you are also quickly able to realize emptiness. In order to complete the lam-rim realizations, the skillful way to meditate on lam-rim is to realize guru devotion. This realization is the most difficult one for most people to generate, so you should train your mind in it once every day.

Daily practice

Every day, first thing in the morning, you should do one meditation on guru devotion, followed by one meditation on different sections of the graduated path of the small scope: perfect human rebirth, impermanence and death and so forth. Also, each day do one short meditation on emptiness in order to plant the seed of this realization; and one meditation related to tantric practice to train your mind in calm abiding, visualizing the seed syllable, as His Holiness the Dalai Lama mentioned, the fire of the tum-mo meditation, or yourself as a deity in the generation stage of tantra.

Meditating on the tum-mo fire at the navel has many advantages. Even if you don't achieve calm abiding through one-pointedly concentrating on the tum-mo fire, you achieve a certain experience of the tantric path and are able to make the chakras and drops serviceable. Tum-mo meditation helps you to accomplish the very essence of the Highest Yoga Tantra path; it gives you some experience of the second stage, the completion stage. If you are able to make the chakras and drops function, you can quickly reach the clear light of example. Tum-mo meditation helps very much for the generation stage to be stable and perfect, as well as helping you either to achieve calm abiding or have a certain experience of completion stage, which is extremely important.

If you train your mind every day in several lam-rim meditations, if you live for ten years, you will have realizations of guru devotion, impermanence and death, or emptiness. Before your death you will have achieved all these realizations - or if not all, at least one or two. In this way your life will not be completely empty. Instead of spending your whole life training your mind in just one meditation - and not being sure of realizing even that before your death - every day do direct meditation on the entire path to enlightenment. Plant the seed of the path to enlightenment in your mind in this way and make your everyday life highly meaningful.