In our daily life, we can see very clearly—it’s very logical even if we do not believe in reincarnation, karma, even if we are not Buddhist, we’re not believers in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha—we can understand very clearly through analysis, through our own experiences, that if we live our life cherishing ourselves that doesn’t bring peace and happiness within our own life, within our own heart. There’s always tension in our heart, and the more tension, the more we cherish the I, thinking only of ourselves, “My happiness, when I can be happy.” Thinking only like that we can’t have real happiness or peace. No matter how many places we go to in the world, whether we live in the city or we go to live in mountains, we have the same problems. Our heart has the same problems, tension and tiredness. The problems are there. There’s no real rest, even if we physically go on vacation, maybe to Tahiti.

Tibetans or Chinese pray to be born in Amitabha’s pure land, Dewachen, or Vajrayogini’s pure land, but I heard that in the West people pray from a young age to be in Tahiti. I think I must have some karma with Tahiti, because I’ve been there twice already. At least twice I have been there. We have one small meditation center in Tahiti called Naropa Center. It has existed there for a long time, for many years, I think maybe for more than seven years. There are many small islands and hills but mostly it’s water, ocean, very blue, like the color of turquoise. I travelled on a small flight to see the different islands, to visit the mountains. I don’t know the name of the religion there, I’m not sure, but I went to see a place where people come to practice. When I was in Tahiti the first time, I wrote to our Sangha, the Western monks at the monastery in France called Nalanda—our master Lama Yeshe called it Nalanda. I wrote to the monks and said that I was in hell. I don’t remember exactly what I wrote, but I said I was in hell.

It depends on our motivation, our attitude, when we live there. If we’re living there, having entertainment and enjoyments with the motivation that is non-ignorance, non-anger, non-attachment, and especially the non-self-centered mind, of course, there’s no question. At least if there is non-attachment, non-anger. If we live there and we have enjoyments with that pure attitude, that pure motivation—with non-anger, non-attachment —then there is no risk, there is no danger. With this motivation, if we’re having enjoyments all this becomes Dharma, it all becomes meditation. We can enjoy living in a place like Tahiti, which is described as the best tourist place, and it all becomes Dharma, it all becomes meditation. We only create the cause to achieve happiness in our future lives.

Especially of course, if our motivation is unstained by the self-cherishing thought, all the enjoyment of whatever we do there becomes not only pure Dharma, but also the cause of achieving enlightenment for sentient beings. Without the self-cherishing thought, if the attitude is cherishing others, benefiting others, then whatever activity we do, whatever enjoyments we have, all those enjoyments are for others, for other sentient beings’ happiness. They all become the cause of the highest success in life, full enlightenment—the cessation of all mistakes of the mind, the gross and subtle defilements, and the completion of all qualities.

But if we go there and our motivation is just self-cherishing, enjoying only with the self-cherishing thought, nothing else, only thinking about “my happiness,” not even thinking about the happiness of future lives; not ultimate happiness, our future ultimate happiness, liberation from the whole entire suffering of samsara and its cause, to achieve that for oneself; and not even the happiness of future lives, the long-term happiness of future lives, not even that; just this life’s happiness, nothing else, [everything becomes negative karma.]

With that attitude just seeking the happiness of this life, clinging only to the happiness of this life for ourselves, just this very short-term happiness; if our attitude is just attachment, simply pure attachment, just that, then all the activities that we do in twenty-four hours—eating, walking, sitting, sleeping, riding on the waves, lying down at the beach, surfing, boating, and all the rest, I don’t need to go through all the rest—everything becomes negative karma. Every single thing that is done with our body, speech and mind becomes negative karma, which results only in suffering, not happiness. Leave aside finding satisfaction and fulfillment in our life, leave that aside. There is no peace and happiness at all with this attitude, the grasping mind, attachment. There is no way, it’s impossible to find satisfaction by following desire.

We achieve satisfaction in our life only when we stop following desire. Whenever that happens, wherever we are—we don’t have to be on the meditation cushion, we could be anywhere, at work or even in the bathroom—the minute we split from desire, separate the mind from desire, stop following desire, the minute we let go, then at that time we find satisfaction. That is Dharma. That is meditation, that is the real Dharma, pure Dharma. When we meet that Dharma, wherever it happens, wherever we are—outside, inside, even in prison—then there’s peace and happiness in our heart, real inner peace and satisfaction.

The Inner Professional

Here I would like to mention one thing and give one example. We’ve studied at university or at college to be an engineer, a physician, a doctor, a professional, a business person or whatever, but that’s not sufficient in our life. We’ve studied how to do all these things in our life—how to be a secretary or a director; how to run company or be an accountant, how to clean, how to cook. However, all these things that we’ve learned in school or at college or whatever, are only external. We’ve learned a profession, we’ve learned externally how to do things, but that’s not enough. That’s not sufficient. If we really want happiness, if we’re really looking for peace and happiness, that’s not sufficient.

We need to be professional inside. We need to be professional mentally; we need inner professionalism. Even if we have all this education from college or university—how to do this, how to do that, how to be a business person and so forth—we are missing the inner profession. What is missing is the inner profession, knowing mentally how to live the life, how to do everything. The real profession is missing. That is the positive attitude, living the life with a peaceful, happy, healthy mind, with non-ignorance, non-anger and non-attachment, and especially with the thought of cherishing others, the ultimate good heart, the thought of cherishing others, unstained by the self-cherishing thought, the selfish mind.

Without this inner professionalism, this inner qualification, then what happens? Even if we succeed in the external world, in business or whatever it is, even if we are externally successful, our mind does not become happier and happier, it doesn’t become more and more peaceful, more and more satisfied, more and more fulfilled. That doesn’t happen. Instead, there are more and more problems, more and more unhappiness.

For example, let’s say we have achieved a good reputation in this world so everyone knows us, young and old, everyone talks about us, everyone knows what we have accomplished by working very hard, bearing a lot of hardships, worries and fears for many years. After many years of working very hard, we have achieved the goal of worldly reputation so everybody knows us, everyone talks about us and likes us, but in our heart there’s a lot of worry, a lot of fear. We might lose our reputation. Anytime, something can happen to make us lose our reputation, for example, we could get a bad name or somebody could become higher, more famous than us. It’s the same with wealth, if somebody becomes wealthier than us, or our wealth and our power goes down. We have a lot of worry and fear that our power or our wealth might go down, and we will not be more important than others. Our heart, our mind, is filled with worry and fear. We have all this suffering, this worldly concern, because we are concerned with the pleasures and comfort of this life, such as having reputation or having more wealth than others.

I have a friend who is very famous, and I heard through other friends that this is what the person is worried about in daily life, even though they have achieved a lot and are famous in the world. In reality, we may have achieved the goal of an external profession, but our mind, our heart is empty. Our heart is empty and filled with misery, filled with suffering, problems. We have so much dissatisfaction, major suffering, dissatisfaction, because we always want something more, something better. There’s no end to that. There’s no completion, no end.

We have relationship problems and so many other problems, for example, other people taking away our possessions. When we’re wealthy, we are concerned about other people taking away our possessions in many different ways, through taxation or whatever. Without this inner professionalism, the healthy mind, the pure mind which is Dharma, the real Dharma, no matter how much we’re externally professional, our life problems go on more and more.

While traveling, I think from India to the United States, I saw a movie on the airplane about a very rich person in England who had a huge house. That person had started a business selling cars and had become very wealthy; he owned all these properties. But his mind was dissatisfied and he was very unhappy. His house had many rooms, so one night he would go to sleep in one room and another night would go to sleep an another room. Anyway, this is what I heard.

He checked where his unhappiness came from. He thought he didn’t have that unhappiness before. It came after he had the car business, so he thought it started from there. He had a bodyguard buy many toy cars and outside the building there was a container where birds drink water. I think that was there. With his bodyguard, he put all these toy cars outside and he put petrol, kerosene, on them and burned them all, because he thought that was the root of his problems. He thought that was where his unhappiness came from, and destroying the cars was his own way to stop suffering, I guess. Something like that. He bought many toy cars, put them outside, put kerosene on them and burned them, with his bodyguard. I think maybe he ate hardly any food and drank sixty bottles of alcohol, because of his unhappiness. That is because he had an external profession but he didn’t have the inner profession, living life with a positive mind, a healthy mind, that which is Dharma.

Anger and attachment, those obscuring attitudes, are not healthy. In Tibetan they are called nyon mong pa, which I translate as “obscuring, disturbing, negative attitude.” This gives a full description of what nyon mong pa means. Disturbing is the function of delusion, but I added the word obscuring. Obscuring, disturbing, negative attitude. If it’s obscuring, disturbing, it is a negative attitude. Its function is to obscure the mind, to obscure the mental continuity of the person. Instead of clearing away, instead of enlightening, instead of awakening, if it’s obscuring and disturbing, then it has to be a negative mind. It receives the name “negative mind.” It cannot receive the name “positive.” That which is awakening, that which is bringing peace and happiness, that which is awakening, not obscuring, bringing peace instead of disturbing, then that is the healthy mind. That is Dharma. That is only Dharma.

These negative minds, for example anger and desire, produce many problems in life. Many of the problems in our life are caused by desire; the problems and harms come to us from anger and give harm to others. Ultimately anger is due to desire.

Impermanence and Death

We need to meditate on impermanence and death—not only that death is going to happen after some time, but especially that the time of death is uncertain. By meditating on impermanence and death, and making the mind familiar with that, we always have this thought of mindfulness of impermanence and death, that this lifespan is very short, instead of thinking, “I’m going to live for a very long time.”

We have the concept of permanence that “I’m going to live for a very long time.” It arises even on the same day that we’re going to die, on the same day that we’re going to have a car accident or an airplane crash or a heart attack or whatever, in whichever situation that we are going to die. Even on the same day that we are going to die, this concept that we are going to live for many years is there in the morning when we get up. It’s there even five minutes before we have a heart attack and die. Just five minutes before the car accident in which we are going to die, this concept that we are going to live for many years is there. However, it’s not true and it cheats us, it deceives us. It blocks us, it deters us from seeking Dharma and making preparation for death.

From our side we have to make preparation for a free death, a happy death. This concept of permanence blocks us from making preparation for a good rebirth in the next life, so that right after this life we can have a good rebirth and be born in the pure land of the Buddha where we can become enlightened, a great bodhisattva. To have a happier life or a better rebirth with more opportunity to meet the teachings of the Buddha and to practice Dharma. Or just simply to have a good rebirth, a happy life, even that. It blocks our preparation for that by practicing Dharma. It blocks us from practicing Dharma in order to actualize the path, to cease the delusions and karma, to become liberated from the oceans of samsaric suffering, and to achieve the ultimate happiness. It blocks that. It blocks us from actualizing bodhicitta and from having realizations of the Mahayana path; it blocks us from achieving enlightenment, and it blocks us from enlightening other sentient beings. It blocks us from liberating numberless other sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bringing them to full enlightenment. So it’s not true. That concept of permanence is not true. It deceives us, it cheats us if we believe in that. Then suddenly one day death comes.

Even today, one student died in California—Ross Brooke, who was the one of the benefactors of the land for Vajrapani Center, which was the very first meditation center in the United States, in Santa Cruz. He was one of the benefactors who offered the land and he died today. Not only that, the nun, Venerable Kim, her mother died this morning. There are so many people in this world who died, even today; there are so many who died at home, in the hospital or in the car. There’s one student in Singapore who had an operation for nine hours and I think she still didn’t wake up. She opened her eyes but she’s not really functioning. Like that. Also, Roger heard about Ross Brooke suddenly. I think just two days ago he had to go to hospital and then today he died. We suddenly heard about that.

Up to now, we have been hearing about this happening to other people, that such-and-such died, this one died or that one died. So many people died from cancer and other things, then one day it becomes our turn. One day, sooner or later, others will hear our name with the word “dead” or “died” joined after our name. For example, let’s say Zopa. After the name “Zopa” then “died.” Up to now we hear about others, but sooner or later others will hear our name joined with the word “died.” Sooner or later, that will definitely happen. Sooner or later, one day, dead—whether it is daytime or nighttime, whatever, any hour. One day that will happen.

We want to go shopping for food for this week, then death happens and we are unable to return back to home. Death happens like that. Or we’re cooking food and before we put it on the plate to eat it, death happens. Or we start to write a letter and before it is finished, death happens. Or we start to write a book and before finishing the book, death happens. We go traveling on a pilgrimage or on vacation, then death happens before we come back. Even when we start to eat food, before finishing the food on the plate or the soup in the bowl, before finishing that, death happens. We go to the bathroom, but before returning back to our room, death happens. It’s definite, one day we will be doing something and death will happen. It’s for sure. That day is going to come sooner or later.

One day this body will be called “corpse.” Corpse. Even our family members and very close friends will not come near the body, they will not touch it. Our body will be covered with cloth and put on the fire. Our own body, this body, one day will be firewood. They will see the skull or some part of the bones. Or our body will be in a coffin buried in the ground, in the graveyard, with some flowers around it. The body will be in the coffin and our family members will be crying, our loved ones, our family members will be crying when they see it, but nothing can be done. There’s nothing that can be done and we know that we’re going to die. When death is happening, we know that we’re going to leave, we’re going to separate, but we have no choice, there’s nothing we can do, we have no choice. We have to separate from all our loved ones, our family and friends, however many we have, we have to separate from them. And from all these possessions, the Mercedes car or limousine. Whatever possessions we have, we know that everything has to be left.

At that time, the only thing that can help is Dharma, if we practice Dharma in our life. That helps, the virtue. How much good heart we practice in our daily life, at that time it helps. How much patience we practice in daily life, at that time it helps. How much kindness for others we practice, at that time it helps. Dharma is the only thing that can help at that time in order to not suffer and to have a happy mind.

The Three Levels of Practice

The best practitioners of Dharma experience unbelievable happiness and joy at the time of death. We can go to the pure land, where we can become enlightened. By being born in the pure land, we can develop the attainments, then we are able to offer deep benefit to other sentient beings. We can reincarnate again and with free will or with total freedom we can come back into the world only to benefit sentient beings. We can come back into the suffering world with total freedom to liberate others. As it’s mentioned in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, we would be so happy, as if we hadn’t met our parents for many years and are now so happy to see them. We are so excited, so happy to meet our parents. Or as if we are going on holiday after working very hard for a long time without a holiday and now we are going on holiday, so we are incredibly happy. For the best Dharma practitioners, the happiness we experience at the time of death is like that.

The middle Dharma practitioner’s death is full of confidence, knowing in our heart. that when we die we will have a good rebirth. We are full of confidence and have a happy mind.

For the last one, the lower Dharma practitioner’s death, there is no fear, the mind is comfortable, even though it’s not clear where we’re going to reincarnate, still there’s no fear or worry that we will be reborn in the lower realms. Kyabje Choden Rinpoche explained this during the lamrim teachings at the Land of Medicine Buddha, one of our centers in California, when he was talking about, I think maybe refuge? Refuge or impermanence and death, I’m not sure. Rinpoche said that the lower Dharma practitioner thinks, “Oh, I don’t have to worry about it. I don’t have to be scared of death because I have Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. I have Buddha, Dharma and Sangha that I can rely on. I can trust in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, so I don’t have to be afraid of death.” So that’s very good. That instruction, that advice, is the lower Dharma practitioner’s way of dying.

There are three [types of capable beings], the highest, which is the best one, the middle one, and then the lower one, so Rinpoche said the lower one is like that. Anyway, at least when we die, even if we cannot be the best Dharma practitioner, even if that doesn’t happen, and even if the middle one doesn’t happen, at least we can be the last one, by remembering Buddha, Dharma and Sangha at the time of death and by thinking, “I have an object of refuge, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, that I can trust.” That cuts the fear of death; it stops the fear of reincarnating in the lower realms.

Actually, here my thoughts went off track; I went off the path, off the road. I was going to say this. By meditating, by remembering impermanence and death, no question if we have the realization of impermanence and death, having the thought spontaneously arising in our heart that, “I won’t live long. I may die this month, this week. I may die tomorrow, even today.” Life appears to us as very short and we think, “I’m not going to live very long.” The appearance of this life is very short. Of course, whoever has the realization of impermanence and death spontaneously arising every day, day and night, no question, that is the best.

By meditating on impermanence and death, even this cuts desire and clinging to the four desirable objects, to this life’s comfort. There’s no clinging to that. There’s no attachment clinging to this life’s happiness of receiving material things, and there’s no attachment clinging this life’s happiness of reputation, of many people saying good things about us. There’s no clinging to that. And there’s no attachment clinging this life’s happiness of praise from individuals saying nice things to us about our qualities. By meditating on impermanence and death there’s no attachment and clinging to these four desirable things, and no question if we have the realization of that. Because there’s no attachment to the four desirable objects, when we don’t receive them, there’s no dislike. There’s no anger arising. By meditating on impermanence and death, by remembering that, we don’t see the point of being attached to these things. We don’t see any point, so our mind is free. We are free from this confused mind, this painful mind of desire. There’s no clinging to these things, so there’s no dislike when these things don’t happen, there’s no dislike, no anger arising, no unhappy mind. If somebody disturbs us, if somebody doesn’t allow these things to happen, the unhappy mind, the anger, doesn’t arise.

As Nagarjuna explained, we need to meditate on this precious human body, which is qualified with eight freedoms and ten richnesses; with this human body we can achieve any great meaning we want, however it’s difficult to find again. Then we need to meditate on the nature of life, impermanence and death. By having these realizations, then for our mind the [eight worldly dharmas are equalized.] Having the pleasure and comfort of this life or not having that; receiving material things or not receiving material things; having a good reputation or not having that; receiving praise or not receiving praise, or we can say receiving praise or criticism—are equalized. When we don’t have attachment to praise, then when somebody criticizes us, it doesn’t bother us, it doesn’t hurt us. However, if we are attached to receiving praise, then when somebody criticizes us it hurts, there’s dislike.

Here, as Nagarjuna explained, the four desirable objects and the four undesirable objects are equalized. They are equalized in our mind. They don’t affect our mind. They don’t bring ups and downs in our life. There is stability in our life, there are no ups and downs. In our life, those desirable objects and undesirable objects, whatever’s happening, the four desirable things and four undesirable things, whatever situation happens, it doesn’t affect our mind. Our mind is continuously at peace, we have inner happiness, peace. Our mind is continuously in Dharma. We have continuous peace and happiness, why? Our mind is continuously in Dharma, unstained by these eight attachments, clinging to this life.

Our mind is continuously in Dharma, which in Tibetan is called chö. This is the mind that is fixed up, the mind that is made better, the healthy, positive, pure mind. We have incredible, unbelievable peace and happiness. When we read Milarepa’s life story, he has all this incredible peace and happiness, basically because his mind has become Dharma, equalized. These four desirable things and the four disliked things are equalized. In this way we are able to live life continuously, day and night, with our life and Dharma as equal. Life and Dharma practice are equal.

The Real Dharma

This is the real Dharma, pure Dharma. Whenever we want to practice Dharma, it has to be like this. Practicing Dharma means this. Especially for Sangha, this should be their main practice as much as possible. This helps them to live in vows and to continue life as Sangha, to continue living in ordination. As it helps Sangha to live in pure vows, this practice is very, very fundamental, it’s essential, like fuel for light or like fuel for a car or airplane. This practice makes our mind free, it makes our mind really happy and healthy, free from desire clinging to this life, which is where all the problems, all the confusion come from, and which causes so many problems for others. Just as the roots of a tree are spread out, our problems spread from desire clinging to this life.

Now going back to where I started. We have all these external professions from school, college or university. We learn how to do this, how to do that, but without learning inner professionalism. We don’t learn how to live the life and how to do everything—our business or professional activity, whatever we do—with a pure attitude, a positive mind, non-ignorance, non-anger and non-attachment, and especially with the non-selfish mind. Without knowing internally how to live our life and how to do everything—if the mind which does all this activity, all the external professions, is without Dharma—then along with that many problems come. Because without Dharma, what comes? Anger, ignorance, attachment, the selfish mind. So of course, problems will arise. How could we have any happiness, inner happiness, even in this life? We’re not talking about a future life, rebirth in the lower realms, we’re not talking about that. Just in our day-to-day life, in this life, how can we enjoy it? How can we achieve satisfaction? There’s no way to achieve satisfaction and happiness. If our attitude is only external professionalism, many problems come. It brings many problems to our life. That’s clear.

That’s what I am saying. Even if we are not Buddhist and don’t believe in reincarnation or karma, all these things, still it’s psychological. We need a healthy mind. Even if we are not chanting mantras or doing prostrations, doing this and that, we want happiness and inner peace, and we don’t want problems in our life. Nobody wants problems in life. So we need to take care of our mind; our mind has to be Dharma. There’s no choice, no question. Psychologically our mind has to be Dharma, non-anger, non-ignorance, non-attachment. Best of course is to not even have the self-cherishing thought, instead to have the thought to benefit others, to cherish others.

Many people have wealth, reputation, friends, everything, so why do they commit suicide, why do so many people kill themselves? There are so many people, so many among the famous people, among the worldly people, who kill themselves. It’s not a question of not having enough food to eat. It’s not that. Many people [kill themselves] because of their problems, because of the dissatisfied mind. Their problems come from the selfish mind. Their problems are due to ignorance, anger, attachment; the problems come because the mind is not Dharma. The problems come, but they don’t know what to do or how to deal with them, then in just one second, they commit suicide. They go to those high bridges, like the bridge in San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge, or the bridge in Sydney, Australia. In each country there are certain places where people jump, where they commit suicide. Also in Spain, I think, or in Brazil. I’m not sure, maybe I got a little mixed up, but I think people jump from a mountain there.

Anyway, we are living our life and doing all these activities, but our mind is not Dharma, so the problems come. Many problems come, things we don’t know how to handle, relationship problems and so forth. We don’t know what to do or how to handle it, we are overwhelmed by the problems, and just in a second, the suicidal thought arises. Just in a second. Nobody kills that suicidal person, nobody in the world kills them, they kill themselves. So we can see that there are two important things for how to live life: external professionalism and the other very important thing, the most important way to live our life is Dharma. Living life with Dharma, our mind becomes Dharma.

As His Holiness explained during the teachings, even if the eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body senses found all the best objects—the best form or the best sound—even if the senses found all the best objects, what is most desired, if the sixth consciousness [the mental consciousness] is not happy, then we can’t really enjoy life. For example, we eat food costing thousands of dollars, or stay in a five star, six star or seven star hotel; and the physical senses have found the objects of desire, but mentally there’s a problem. It could be a relationship problem or whatever; there is dissatisfaction in the mind. Even though the food costs thousands of dollars, we can’t enjoy it. It’s the same with everything. The only way to make the sixth consciousness the mental consciousness, happy, is through Dharma practice.

As I mentioned before, when there are many problems with uncontrolled desire, meditate on impermanence and death. Reflect on the shortcomings and the problems of desire, how it is harmful to ourselves and others; how it is deceiving us and cheating us all the time; how it is deceiving us and deceiving others. Think about the shortcomings of desire, the day-to-day harm, the long-term harm in all our future lives and the harm it has given from beginningless rebirth, for ourselves and for other sentient beings. Each time we allow desire to arise and we engage in that activity; each time we do that, desire leaves a negative imprint on our mental continuum. We have more and more negative imprints on our mental continuum and that makes it very difficult in future.

Because we plant so many seeds of desire on our mental continuum, it is very difficult in the future to be free from that. Instead, we are happy in the future to engage in all those various actions of desire, the conduct of desire. We get habituated to that, which makes our future very difficult. Even though we are seeking liberation from samsara, ultimate liberation, the sorrowless state, even though we are seeking that and we wish to practice Dharma, we can’t practice. We can use our present experience, we want to practice, we want to have realizations, but we can’t. We are unable to practice, unable to meditate, because we are overwhelmed by desire, controlled by desire. It’s like a waterfall or a tsunami. In recent times there was a tsunami in Indonesia or India. Also in the United States, New Orleans was covered with water during a tsunami, so desire is exactly like that. Desire is exactly like that, like the New Orleans tsunami.

Anyway, we can use this life’s experience of how desire makes it very difficult to practice Dharma. An excellent example is our own experiences, all our difficulties and those of others. Now here, if we don’t practice Dharma, if we don’t protect our mind from the delusions, then every time we allow desire to arise, we plant the seeds of desire, the imprints of desire. Then the same conduct becomes habituated, which makes the future very difficult and brings so much suffering. There are many other meditations explained in the texts, for example, looking at the object as ugly. There are many things explained, however, I think this one about leaving a negative imprint on the mind and planting the seed of desire again is the most terrifying one. That is worse than hell! We leave an imprint on the mental continuum by this delusion and the habituation of our conduct, then we engage in it again, and again it leaves an imprint on the mind. I think this is much worse than hell. We experience hell for a certain length of time and then when the karma finishes, we don’t experience that. But this is habituated and we allow it to arise.

We let ourselves be controlled by desire, we allow desire to arise without practicing Dharma, without meditating on lamrim, without applying Buddhist psychology or lamrim meditation or thought transformation, without protecting our mind. This causes desire to arise again, then again we engage in negative conduct, then that causes us to be reborn the lower realms and to have many problems in this life. And not only that; it doesn’t stop there. We reincarnate in the lower realms and experience those sufferings again and again. We also experience sufferings the next time we’re born as a human. Due to another good karma, we’re born as a human being, but in that life we experience many problems. With desire, we engage in killing or stealing or sexual misconduct or we tell lies or slander others. Even though we’re reborn as a human being in the future due to another good karma, in that life we experience many problems as a result of those negative actions done out of desire. Then again in that life there is the past seed of desire, an imprint has been planted due to the conduct, the habituation from past, so again we do the same thing, we engage in those negative karmas again.

The Four Suffering Results

Those actions, those completed negative karmas, have four suffering results. The first is the ripening result of rebirth in the lower realms. However, we will also experience the other three suffering results when we’re born at another time. Due to another good karma if we are born as a human being, then again in that life we will experience the suffering results of that negative karma. We will experience the other three sufferings of that negative karma, whether it was sexual misconduct or whether it was telling a lie or whether it was stealing or killing. That completed negative karma has four suffering results, so the ripening aspect result is rebirth in the lower realms.

The possessed result is to do with the environment, so we will experience a very harmful, unpleasant environment, with contagious diseases or fear of wars, earthquakes, famines, tsunamis, tornadoes, all these things. Not tomato, tornado. [Laughter] We will experience all this, cyclones, hurricanes, so many problems in the environment. Anyway, just to give a general idea.

We will also receive so much harm from others, similar to what we did in the past. We will receive similar harm from others, which is experiencing the result similar to the cause. Then again we will do the same thing, we will engage in the same conduct, the same karma again. From this delusion, this one negative karma that is completed, there are four suffering results. From this completed negative karma there are four suffering results, and this goes on and on and on.

The fourth result is creating the result similar to the cause, which means we will do the same thing again in the next life because of habituation, the negative imprint, so the suffering is endless. From this one negative karma done with desire, we receive endless suffering.

Therefore, think about the shortcomings of desire like that, how it’s worse than being reborn in hell, and if we think long-term, there is harm. [Our suffering is endless] if we don’t do anything, if we don’t practice Dharma; if we don’t practice meditation; and not just what is called meditation but lamrim, bodhicitta, renunciation, right view—without talking about tantra—thought transformation, bodhicitta, emptiness, practicing the good heart, patience, like that. Without practicing that, we can’t actualize the path to liberation and enlightenment. The wisdom directly perceiving emptiness removes the seed of the delusions, the seed of desire; it directly removes that, so we need to achieve this path. In this way we can end the suffering of samsara. This is how we can end our suffering, by ceasing the cause of suffering, karma and delusion, including the seed of delusion.

Listen Reflect and Meditate

Therefore, in order to practice, we have to listen, reflect and meditate. We have to understand and to learn as much as possible. We have to learn Buddhadharma as much as possible, because it brings incredible benefit, unbelievable benefit.

A few days ago, in the temple of the Tibetan community, I also mentioned the benefits of hearing Buddhadharma, that just by hearing the Buddha’s teachings it causes higher rebirth. Even if we don’t understand, just by listening it causes a good rebirth in the next life. For example, I think it might be in Tibet, I’m not sure, there were three monks and they had one dog. The monks were reciting prayers and the dog was staying with them, so the dog heard that. There was no way the dog understood the meaning of the teachings, what the monks were reciting. Anyway, just by hearing that, after the dog died it was reborn in the deva realm. Just hearing Buddhadharma is the cause of a higher rebirth.

Buddha recited teachings to five hundred swans who were in a field and just by hearing Dharma, after the swans died they were all reborn as human beings. Not only were they born as human beings, but they all became Sangha, they all took ordination. Not only did they take ordination, they also achieved the arya path, the exalted path. There are five paths to achieve liberation: the path of merit, the path of preparation, the right-seeing path, the path of meditation [and (the unification of) no more learning.] In the next life, those five hundred swans were born as human beings, they all became monks, and they achieved the right-seeing path, the path of meditation, the exalted path, in just the next life.

Therefore, for Buddhadharma it’s like this; even if we don’t understand at all just by listening to philosophy teachings or something like that. Even if we don’t understand, even if it’s hard to understand, like the subjects on emptiness or whatever, just by hearing the teachings there are skies of benefit. Each word that we listen to leaves a positive imprint on our mental continuum, so either later in this life or in the next life this imprint is actualized, is manifested. Then again in the next life we meet Dharma, and it’s much easier, a hundred thousand times easier to understand the words and meaning, and from that, we are able to practice and to have realizations. Then our realizations of the path cease the defilements, the gross and subtle defilements, and we are able to achieve not only liberation, but also full enlightenment.

I would like to mention that the FPMT International Office has started here in Portland. Yangsi Rinpoche has started teaching here and is in the process of creating a university for studying Buddhist philosophy integrated with meditation. The special thing about it is that from the beginning Yangsi Rinpoche intended it to be not just for scholars, not just learning the words, but integrated with meditation. People have to meditate, which is unique. In the universities or the monasteries, they’re learning words, philosophy, but here it’s combined with meditation, integrated with meditation on lamrim, so it’s like apple pie. It’s like hot apple pie, topped with cream. Hot apple pie, and on top of that there is cream. Anyway, I’m just joking. Now we’ll have a short break.

[Tea break]

The Shortcomings of Attachment

As I was saying before, Dharma is needed, not only by Buddhists, but by anyone who wants happiness and does not want problems. Only by letting go of anger and practicing patience is there peace and happiness for ourselves; there’s more success in our life by practicing patience instead of anger. With anger we become an enemy to others; we become an enemy even to our friends, even to our loved ones. We become their enemy and they become our enemy. After we get angry with them, they become our enemy even though they were our friend before. Anger creates anger, and as a result, so many other sentient beings, so many other people in this world become our enemy.

In order to not experience problems in our life, in order to not create problems in our life, we need to let go of desire. That is Dharma. Practicing patience is Dharma; letting go of anger and practicing patience is Dharma. All these positive ideas, such as generating compassion, loving kindness, all of this is Dharma. It’s the best Dharma.

Nobody wants relationship problems and that depends on contentment, letting go of desire, renouncing desire. When we let go of desire, there is Dharma. It is needed by young and old, and even those who are not Buddhist need Dharma. There’s no way to have happiness in our life without Dharma. Without knowing Buddhism, it looks as if there’s something to reject, but if we come to know Dharma, if we come to know Buddhism, if we come to know what is Buddha, what is Dharma, what is Sangha; if we come to know what is karma, it all becomes universal. When we come to know Dharma, when we come to know Buddhism, we see it’s universal. Not only human beings, even animals, anyone who needs happiness, needs to practice Dharma. Having a positive attitude and doing positive actions, that’s Dharma. Happiness only comes from a pure mind, a positive mind and positive actions.

Nagarjuna explained that from ignorance, anger and attachment, the actions which arise are non-virtuous and the result is the suffering of the evil migratory beings, rebirth in the lower realms with all those sufferings. The actions born from non-ignorance, non-anger, non-attachment are virtuous, and from that virtue all the happy transmigratory beings arise. From virtuous actions we get a higher rebirth and all that happiness.

Our normal activities—eating, walking, sitting, sleeping, going to work for many hours and so forth—if all these activities are done with bodhicitta, the thought of achieving enlightenment for sentient beings, then they become the cause of achieving enlightenment for sentient beings. That means all those activities become the cause of happiness for all sentient beings. If all these activities are done without the thought to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings, but to achieve liberation from samsara, cyclic existence, the sorrowless state, only for ourselves, then these activities become only the cause of that—achieving liberation for ourselves. If these activities are done just with the motivation of receiving happiness in our future lives—not to achieve enlightenment nor to achieve liberation from samsara for ourselves—then they become only the cause of happiness in our future lives.

If all these activities are done only with attachment clinging to this life’s happiness, that is nonvirtue and all those actions become negative karma. All those twenty-four hours’ activities—doing our job for many hours, sleeping for many hours and so forth—if all those actions are done with attachment clinging to this life’s happiness, that is nonvirtue and all those actions become nonvirtue. The result is only suffering, rebirth in the lower realms, rebirth in the hell, hungry ghost or animal realm, depending on how heavy the negative karma is.

As I mentioned before, we need a professional mind, a healthy mind, Dharma, along with the external professionalism, the external profession. Then I was talking about the problems of this life without Dharma. On top of those problems, we will be reborn in the lower realms and we will experience all those sufferings. Even if we receive a human rebirth later, we will have to experience many problems in our life. This is the effect of our actions on our next life. It’s the same even with meditation or reciting prayers. If the action is done with any of those virtuous motivations, then it becomes the cause of happiness, the cause of that level of happiness, but if it’s done with attachment clinging only to this life, even those actions become nonvirtue and there’s no happy result from that. So it depends on our motivation.

Whether an action becomes virtue or nonvirtue depends on whether the motivation is virtuous or nonvirtuous. Even though reciting mantras or prayers helps to heal sicknesses or to have a long life or wealth, due to the words of the truth; even though these recitations help us to have this success, it doesn’t necessarily mean our action of doing meditation or reciting prayers becomes virtue. Not necessarily. For example, when we are sick and we take medicine, it helps to heal our sickness, but that doesn’t mean our action of taking medicine is virtue. Similarly, even though the subject is Dharma, what we recite is Dharma, that doesn’t mean our action becomes Dharma. Even if we meditate on the deity, just because we are meditating on the deity, that doesn’t mean it becomes virtue, Dharma. It depends on our motivation. If we don’t have renunciation of samsara or even renunciation of this life—without bodhicitta, without right view and not even having renunciation of this life—then even visualizing the deity becomes nonvirtue.

For example, there were two monks doing a three-year Yamantaka retreat in Penpo, Tibet, when one of them died. One evening, while the surviving monk was doing sur practice—which involves offering the smell of food to the intermediate state beings—a very terrifying preta [hungry ghost] with many arms and heads, hands and legs, appeared to him. The monk asked the preta, “Who are you?”

The preta said, “I’m your friend, the one who was doing retreat with you before.” They were doing Yamantaka retreat, but the monk who passed away did the retreat without right view, without bodhicitta and without renunciation. He didn’t even have renunciation for this life. Because of that, very simply, it means his retreat was done with attachment clinging to this life, and that’s why he was born as a spirit. Even though he did long retreat, chanting mantras and so on, he was reborn as spirit, a preta, in his next life.

We have to understand these things. Even though the prayers that the monks recited were Highest Yoga Tantra teachings, their motivation didn’t have lamrim, not even renunciation of this life. The monk had attachment clinging to that life, and with that nonvirtuous thought, his meditation became nonvirtue and the result was rebirth as a preta, with many arms, heads and hands.

Similarly, if you have the attitude that you want to kill somebody and you chant the wrathful deity’s mantra—the deity that is an enlightened being, like Yamantaka or any of the wrathful deities—if you chant mantras to harm somebody, if your thought is to harm others and you chant with the nonvirtuous thought, how can that be virtue? If you recite mantras with the thought to harm others, with ill will, how can that become virtue? Those are examples. They are not actions mixed with white and black, not that.

It’s the same when we make charity to other sentient beings, if our motivation is just to get power, to receive praise from others, to gain a good reputation, how we’re so perfect, so kind, so generous, blah, blah. Similarly if our motivation is to receive praise and reputation from others, or to get wealth and power in this life, things like that. Again, even if making charity stops the suffering, the hunger and thirst of the other person, that doesn’t mean our action becomes virtue. It doesn’t become virtue. If it’s done with the nonvirtuous thought, it becomes nonvirtue.

However, with statues, stupas and scriptures—no question about the actual Buddha, Dharma, Sangha—even if we set them up, do prostrations and make offerings with ignorance, anger or attachment clinging to this life, with nonvirtuous thought, these actions still become virtue. It’s not pure Dharma; it’s Dharma, but not pure Dharma. Our actions immediately become the cause of enlightenment, the cause to achieve liberation from samsara and the cause of happiness in our future lives. They become Dharma not from the side of our motivation, but from the power of the holy object. These actions become Dharma due to the power of the holy objects—the statues, stupas and scriptures. However, if the motivation is nonvirtue, that can have its own negative effect.

The great master Shantideva explained in the Bodhicaryavatara, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, that if we don’t exchange ourselves for others, we cannot achieve enlightenment. Even in this life there’s no happiness, leave aside the happiness of our future lives. Even the works of this life can’t succeed.

There’s a quotation¹ and commentary on that and if we analyze our life we can find many examples.

We’re looking for happiness in this life, with many successes, good relationships, this and that, a good long-term job and many other things, but if we do something wrong, with a selfish mind, then attachment or anger arises. With a selfish mind, we might do something wrong, then we lose our job, even though we found a good job, or we could not find job for a long time.

If we’re unable to have success in our life, that is the result of our past life’s karma of covetousness. Being unsuccessful in our life is the result of our past negative karma, our past covetousness. For example, I heard that some people cannot find a job for two or three years. Having many difficulties in our life is the result of negative actions such as covetousness, in Tibetan nab sem. And covetousness is generated due to the self-cherishing thought. It is generated due to the self-cherishing thought. The selfish mind wants this and that, so many things. The selfish mind makes life very expensive, very expensive. And because of the selfish mind, relating to the self-cherishing thought, there’s attachment. Attachment makes life very expensive; we want many billions of things, we want this and that, then there are debts. Attachment causes those debts to build up. The self-cherishing thought builds debts that we can’t pay off even in this life.

Our relationship problems are also the result of our past karma of sexual misconduct. Our family members and our other companions have wishes opposite to ours. Our companions oppose our wishes, then we don’t become harmonious with our family or with the surrounding people in the office. Their wishes are against ours so there are quarrels and fights, and many problems start from that. We experience the result similar to the cause, due to the past negative karma of sexual misconduct.

It’s the same if we are being abused by others, it’s the result similar to the cause. Why does this person abuse us? There is a reason for that; we created the reason before. Why does this person abuse us? On TV, they talk about this so much; it’s a huge subject that they always talk about. There is a reason for all this abuse. In the past, as result of our past activity, our past negative karma of sexual misconduct, we have abused others, we have treated others similarly in the past, we have treated that person similarly in the past, and that was done with the self-cherishing thought.

Also, separation from our relationship, divorce or separation, when the other person wants to leave us, is the result of the past negative karma of slander. Instead of bringing unity among others, we caused disunity, separation, by having slandered in the past. Here, that was done with the self-cherishing thought. So there is separation even in our family relationships. Basically it’s caused by the self-cherishing thought, the root is the self-cherishing thought. That negative karma was created due to the self-cherishing thought, the selfish mind.

All these failures and difficulties in our life, , whatever’s happening, we can always relate to the ego, the self-cherishing thought, something done either earlier in this life or in past lives. There are also conditions. Due to the self-cherishing thought we show anger or with the dissatisfied mind we do something which makes the other person unhappy. We repeat it again and again, which makes the other person unhappy, and we seek only our own happiness. That’s what the self-cherishing thought does. We don’t think about the other person’s needs or happiness, we only think about our own needs, and that makes the other person unhappy. That’s why in Bodhicaryavatara, Shantideva says that even the works of this life don’t succeed. There’s the past karma, then in this life there are also conditions, doing something wrong. Therefore, the reasoning here is that we must change our own attitude, we must cherish others. We must let go of I and cherish others.

The Childish Work For their Own Benefit

The great bodhisattva Shantideva² also mentioned why we need to cherish others. All the happiness in the world comes from cherishing others, and all the suffering and problems in the world—whether it’s a global problem, whether it’s an individual person’s problem or whether it’s a country’s problem—all these come from cherishing the I, the self-cherishing thought. Shantideva explains that is childish. “Child” means somebody who thinks nonsense and who does something which is nonsense. We say, “He or she is childish,” about someone who does something which is nonsense. Here, child is labeled on those who are seeking happiness for themselves, cherishing the I. They are called childish. There’s no use thinking like that, it’s nonsense. That person who cherishes the I and works only for himself is called a child. That way of thinking or that actual conduct is childish.

We can also think this way: what is that I which is cherished by our mind? What is that I which we cherish and think is so important, so precious? What is that I? Usually it is the I that we cherish with our mind; it is the I that we believe one hundred percent is in this body. We believe that there’s an I in this body. When we don’t analyze it, the I appears, and we believe it is there, inside this body—not in the legs, not in the head, but somewhere down below the neck, above the belly, somewhere in the chest. When we don’t examine this, it really looks like it’s there, we really believe it is there. But when we look for it, we cannot find it. That I we cannot find. It’s neither inside this body nor is it on the collection of the five aggregates, the association of body and mind. We cannot find it. That I we cannot find from the tip of our hair down to our toes, we can’t find it anywhere. It’s neither inside the body nor anywhere, we can’t find it. If we look for it, we can’t find it anywhere. So that proves it is total nonsense, there’s no such I. It exists nowhere.

When we don’t examine this, when we’re not meditating, the I appears to our hallucinating mind as if it is there, as if it can be found. But if we look for the I, we cannot find it. What we discover is that it is totally non-existent, right there. Right there, from where it is appearing, it is total non-existent right there. This is what we discover through analysis.

Therefore, what are we cherishing? The I doesn’t exist, so what are we cherishing? What we’re cherishing is not the I which exists, the merely labeled I. What exists is the merely labeled I, merely imputed by the mind, because there’s a base—the association of the body and mind. The mind simply made up the label I and we believe in that. So when we cherish I, we’re not cherishing the merely labeled I. We have to understand that when we cherish I, we’re not cherishing the merely labeled I.

The I which exists is the merely labeled I, that which is merely imputed by our mind. That is what exists. The merely labeled I is what always experiences happiness and suffering. The merely labeled I can remove the cause of suffering and practice the cause of happiness, and it can remove the cause of samsara, achieve liberation and achieve enlightenment. The merely labeled I does all these activities. But when we cherish I, we don’t think, “Oh, I cherish this merely labeled I.” We don’t think, “I must cherish this merely labeled I.” No, I don’t think so.

We are not cherishing the merely labeled I. The I that we cherish is something which doesn’t exist anywhere. This false I appears from above the collection of the five aggregates, this base. Or we can say in just a gross way, thinking what we normally think, that it is inside this body. We don’t believe there is an I outside this body; we think I is inside this body, somewhere in the chest, down below the neck and above the belly. We don’t think the I is in the belly, except when we do the Six Yogas of Naropa meditation with the channels, or when we do chakra meditation, at that time we go up and down [the channels.] At that time we believe the I is in the navel chakra, we believe there’s a real I in the navel chakra or there’s a real I in the heart chakra, there’s a real I in a particular spot. We believe there is a real I. That is gag cha. That is one example of gag cha, the object to be refuted. We don’t think it’s a merely labeled I; we think there’s a real I on that spot. That’s one example of the object to be refuted.

Now we can see how childish it is. There is no such I there, yet we cherish this as most important of all sentient beings. This I is most important among all the sentient beings, more important than the buddhas, more important than all sentient beings including bodhisattvas. Here, it’s a total hallucination. There’s no such thing to cherish, it’s totally non-existent. The I that we cherish is totally non-existent, but we believe it is in this body, on the aggregates. It’s silly, because there’s nothing to cherish. Even the object—that emotional I, the psychological term, the truly existent I—is not there.

We can see it is exactly what Shantideva said, it is childish, like a child. Someone who has the self-cherishing thought is called a child. We do everything for that I, which is not there. We do everything, having all the worries and fears, thinking, “I’m going to get sick, I’m going to die, I’m this, this.” Then having many checkups before we even get sick, having all the checks, every year checking the whole body, thinking the I that’s inside this body is going to get sick or is going to die. All the activities are done for the I, for example, working for many hours at our job; all the activities are done for that I—not for the merely labeled I, which exists, but for this I which doesn’t exist there. We do everything for this I—killing, cheating people, telling lies—all this is to get happiness for this I. By cherishing this I, this most important one, we do everything for this I, which is not there. Therefore, we can see even more why being called childish fits very well here. In our daily life, analyzing the self-cherishing thought and the object is one important meditation. So this way of living our life with the self-cherishing thought is completely false.

The other thing, as I often say, is that there is not one single reason to prove that we are more important than this animal or that we are more important than this person. This is without talking about numberless animals, numberless sentient beings. Just thinking, “I am more important than this person,” or “I am more important than all other sentient beings.” There’s not one single logical reason that proves we are more important than this person or this animal, thinking that our needs are more important than theirs. That is just dictatorship. That selfish mind, thinking, “I am more important, my needs are more important,” is just dictatorship. That’s real dictatorship. There’s no logical reason to prove that we are more important, so it’s just dictatorship.

Now, I’ve finished this talk, but I’d like to explain a few more things and that’s it.

What I want to explain is the essence of thought transformation. I didn’t get to go through the commentary of the Eight Verses, I was just talking, blah, blah, blah, you know? [Laughter] Blah, blah, blah. Just the preliminaries. I wish to explain the stanzas, but this would take a lot of time, so I’ll just explain the essence. I want to mention one quotation. I’ll give an example from our daily life, but there can be many other similar examples. Anyway, let’s say the other person wants to put a vase there and we want to put the vase here. Then, because of cherishing the I, that emotional I or that truly existent I which is not there, we want our own happiness therefore we want to have the vase here. Or because of attachment. We put the decorations. We want to have the vase here and the other person wants it there, so then we fight, but the other person doesn’t listen so we get angry and quarrel, and then there’s no harmony with that person. This creates the whole phenomena—the other person gets angry and we get angry, then we don’t talk to each other for months and years. This is an example, sometimes it can happen like that.

Instead, think that simply by putting this vase there, as the other person wanted, then they will be happy. If we accept what the other person wants and think about their happiness, when we put the vase there, that person is happy. It makes them happy. And because we see the other person is happy with us, that makes us happy. It makes us happy because the other person is happy with us. This is a simple example. Thinking about the other person’s happiness and putting the vase there brings two kinds of success—happiness for the other person and our own happiness. That person is happy with us, so it makes us happy. It’s very harmonious. We live happily with our family, with society, with our neighbors or—a bit larger—with the people in the country and in the world. We live happily with everyone.

However, if we argue, if we follow our self-cherishing thought and disregard the other person’s happiness, then that makes them unhappy. When the other person is unhappy, we’re not very happy because they are not happy with us, they’re upset with us. So how can we be happy? It disturbs our mind. By following the self-cherishing thought, it brings unhappiness to the other person and also doesn’t make us happy. The other person complains and is angry, which affects us and makes us unhappy. That’s the result of following the self-cherishing thought, using this Tibetan ritual vase as an example. Our life is full of these examples.

In Guru Puja, there’s one prayer that I find very, very effective, in the section about the mother. I find this verse very beneficial, I think it’s an incredible teaching.

Having considered how all these miserable beings have been my mothers
And have raised me with kindness again and again,
I seek your blessings to develop effortless compassion
Like that of a loving mother for her precious child.
    - Lama Chöpa, v. 89

Just as a mother loves her beloved child, we need to love and to have compassion for all sentient beings. Just as a mother has compassion toward her most beloved child, like that may we be able to generate compassion. Generating uncreated [effortless] compassion means having the actual realization of compassion for all sentient beings. We ask for that, we request blessings.

There is no difference between myself and others:
None of us wishes for even the slightest of sufferings
Or is ever content with the happiness we have.
Realizing this, I seek your blessings that I may generate joy for the happiness of others.
      - Lama Chöpa, v. 90

We always want happiness, but we are never satisfied by that. Here, we ask for blessings so we can be joyful when somebody else is happy. This is a very important practice in our daily life. When we see that others have found happiness and enjoyments, whatever happiness they need, instead of feeling unhappy or jealous we should generate joy. It’s the same with relationship problems. We will have no problems in our daily life, in many situations, if we practice joy that the other person has found happiness and enjoyment.

Cherishing Others is the Door to Infinite Qualities

Now I want to give a very important quotation from Lama Chöpa about the shortcomings of the self-cherishing thought and the benefits of cherishing others.

The mind that cherishes mothers and places them in bliss
Is the gateway leading to infinite qualities.
Seeing this, I seek your blessings to cherish these migratory beings
More than my life, even should they rise up as my enemies.
   - Lama Chöpa, v. 92

Sentient beings have been our mother, so cherishing our mothers, with the thought to bring them happiness, is the door from which infinite qualities arise. We ask for blessings to be able to see that the thought to bring sentient beings to happiness is the door to infinite qualities. These sentient beings who become our enemy are not only the people in our family, in our country or in this world, but all the sentient beings in different universes, including all the human beings who become our enemy, all the hell beings, all the hungry ghosts and all the animals who become our enemy, all the suras and asuras, everyone who becomes our enemy, all the sentient beings who become our enemy. We ask for blessings even if everyone becomes our enemy and is against us. Think, “May I be able to cherish them. May I be able to cherish everyone.” Numberless beings who are against us, who become our enemy, may we be able to cherish everyone more than our own life. May we cherish them more than our own life. Cherish them as more precious than our own life.

Now I’ll it put this way. Our loving kindness, our bodhicitta, toward even one sentient being— wishing to achieve enlightenment for that one sentient being—is the door for us to achieve all happiness and infinite qualities. It becomes the door for us to achieve all the infinite qualities, all the temporary and ultimate happiness, liberation, enlightenment, all the realizations. From our loving kindness, our bodhicitta, we achieve all the happiness and all the realizations of the path to enlightenment. We achieve everything, liberation and enlightenment—the cessation of all the defilements and development of all the qualities.

From our loving kindness, our bodhicitta, we are able to liberate numberless hell beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment. From our bodhicitta, our loving kindness, we are able to liberate numberless ants—even though it’s one type of animal, there are numberless ants—from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment. With our bodhicitta, our loving kindness, we are able to liberate numberless fish who live in the water, in the ocean; we are able to liberate them from the ocean of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment. There are numberless animals of each type, so like that, for all the flies, we are able to liberate them from the ocean of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment. All those tiny insects on the ground and in the trees, wherever they are, with our loving kindness, our bodhicitta, we are able to bring them all this; we can free them from samsaric sufferings and bring them to enlightenment. If we think like this, extensively for each type, which is numberless, it’s amazing!

There are numberless hungry ghosts, numberless human beings, suras and asuras, and we are just one person, but with our loving kindness, bodhicitta, we are able to bring all those beings to full enlightenment. We are able to liberate them from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment. Here we can see that we’re able to generate and cause all the realizations on the path to enlightenment, all those qualities, all the happiness for those beings. All this comes from us, from one person, from our loving kindness, bodhicitta. Therefore, in this quotation from Guru Puja we’re requesting blessings to see that the thought to bring happiness to sentient beings is the door to infinite qualities. We can think like that.

No question about bringing that sentient being to liberation, enlightenment, and the happiness of future lives. No question, even if the thought simply arises to cause just the happiness in this life for one sentient being; to cause happiness in this life, even a small comfort, like the example I gave before. For example, if somebody has no money for food, we can share our food. While traveling, if somebody needs help—an old person or a young person, or a mother who has children—we can think of that person’s happiness and help them. We want to bring them even temporary comfort and pleasure. This thought becomes the door for us to receive infinite qualities and all the happiness, thus we can bring happiness to numberless sentient beings up to enlightenment. The thought to cause happiness for others is very precious. Benefits like limitless sky come from that thought to cause happiness for others, what we can offer to numberless sentient beings.

Therefore, this person becomes very precious, unbelievably precious for us, because by generating loving kindness, by causing happiness for that person, by generating compassion for that person, we receive all the qualities up to enlightenment. We receive all the bodhisattva’s qualities, all the buddhas’ qualities, the holy body, holy speech, and holy mind, limitless skies of qualities of the Buddha’s holy body. We receive all that. We receive all the qualities of Dharma and Sangha by generating compassion or loving kindness for that person. That person is giving us all these attainments, all the happiness up to enlightenment, so they are very precious. Like that, every single sentient being is very precious and is the source of all our happiness and attainments.

If we don’t cherish that one person or that animal, that one sentient being, we cannot achieve enlightenment. If we leave out the enemy, the person whom we don’t like or we hate, or the person who hates us, who criticizes us, who’s mean to us; if we don’t cherish this person, there’s no enlightenment. We can’t achieve loving kindness, the compassionate thought, bodhicitta. We can’t achieve the Mahayana path, all those bodhisattva’s qualities, all the buddhas’ qualities. They can do perfect work for sentient beings, but we can’t achieve that if we renounce this one sentient being. If we cherish this one sentient being, whether it’s an animal or a human, there is enlightenment. We can achieve the entire Mahayana path to enlightenment if we cherish this one sentient being. If we don’t cherish this person, there is no enlightenment for us. That’s clear.

Now, who’s more important? This person is more important than us. You see? The issue is that cherishing I is only opening the door for suffering, as mentioned in the quotation. If we cherish the other person, the other sentient being, we can achieve enlightenment, we can open the door for all the qualities, we can achieve all the happiness. We can achieve that and we can cause that for all sentient beings. Therefore, this one sentient being is very precious, the most precious one in our life. Here, what is called “I” is to be let go forever. And what is called “other,” even if it’s one sentient being, is to be cherished forever. So that person becomes the most precious, the kindest one in our life.

An example is the story of Asanga, who had tried to achieve Maitreya Buddha for twelve years, but he didn’t achieve that realization. It was only after he saw a wounded dog that he generated unbelievable compassion. The lower part of the dog’s body was filled with worms, so Asanga cut flesh from his own thigh and put the worms on it, by picking up the worms with the tip of his tongue so that they wouldn’t get killed. He generated unbelievable compassion for this wounded dog and purified all the defilements which blocked him from seeing Maitreya Buddha. It was Maitreya Buddha, but Asanga saw a wounded dog.

By generating unbearable compassion, Asanga gave himself up to take care of the dog and purified all that negative karma, those defilements which interfered with him being able to see Maitreya Buddha. He had seen an ordinary being, a wounded dog, but when that was purified, he could see Maitreya Buddha. Then he received teachings and wrote commentaries, the five treatises of Maitreya, which have been studied, practiced and meditated on until now, leading to numberless beings becoming enlightened, becoming bodhisattvas. By generating unbearable compassion for one sentient being, this wounded dog, we can see the unbelievable benefit for other sentient beings, besides Asanga himself, who became enlightened.

Similarly, there is the story of Getsul Tsimbulwa, as mentioned in the Vajrayogini commentary. His guru, Nakpo Chöpawa, was on way to Odi, where he would engage in the last tantric practice, the conduct. There was a big river and next to the river there was a woman who was filled with leprosy disease, with pus and blood coming out, totally ugly. This lady asked the great yogi Nakpo Chöpawa, “Please take me to the other side of the river.” But Nakpo Chöpawa didn’t take her across and he went straight over by himself. Then his disciple, Getsul Tsimbulwa, the monk—I think Nakpo Chöpawa was a layman—came after some time. The lady asked Getsul Tsimbulwa, “Please carry me to the other side of the river.” Getsul Tsimbulwa felt unbearable compassion for her. Without any hesitation, without thinking, “That’s a woman” or “That’s leprosy, a contagious disease,” without any hesitation, with unbearable compassion, he sacrificed himself to carry her across the river.

Without crossing to the other side completely, without completely crossing the river, when Getsul Tsimbulwa reached the middle of the river his negative karma was purified. That woman was a deity, Dorje Pagmo, the enlightened being, but he could not see the enlightened being before; he saw an ordinary lady filled with leprosy, sickness, completely ugly. Because he generated unbearable compassion, so much compassion, and he sacrificed himself to take care of her, to carry her on his back, the negative karma, the impure mind projecting this ordinary lady onto an enlightened being, was purified during that time. Without even crossing to the other side of the river, just halfway across, Getsul Tsimbulwa saw the deity. Then the deity, Dorje Pagmo, took him to the pure land, Dagpa Khacho. If we’re born in Dagpa Khacho we’re definitely enlightened in that life. We definitely become enlightened in that life. With the same body, Dorje Pagmo took him to that pure land and he immediately became enlightened there.

The reason I’m telling this story is that when we generate compassion for even one sentient being, there is incredible benefit, quick enlightenment, like Getsul Tsimbulwa. Quick enlightenment. According to the quotation I gave you before,

The mind that cherishes mothers and places them in bliss
Is the gateway leading to infinite qualities.

Therefore, the conclusion is that every sentient being is most precious, most kind. That’s the conclusion. Any friend, enemy, stranger, any sentient being.

The idea is that we try to live our daily life with this understanding, with this awareness. When we think like this, respect for others comes naturally. Even for animals, even for flies, even for insects, no question for human beings, respect comes. With this understanding that they’re very precious, respect comes. They’re very precious, most kind in this life, therefore we cannot harm them. There’s no way to harm them, we can only benefit them and serve them. Only serve them.

Now we can see that this is the best life. Why? Because this sentient being is the most precious one in our life. Therefore to serve others, offering even a small pleasure, even a small comfort, even small help, whatever we can offer, is incredible satisfying, incredible fulfilling for us. We will have a most enjoyable life, a most happy life, even if we offer a small service or a small comfort. This is the reason why we need to achieve enlightenment. For that we need to actualize the path, for that we need to listen, to reflect, to do meditation, and also we need to serve others. For that we need a long life, therefore we are going to take the White Tara long life initiation.

[Rinpoche gives White Tara jenang]

Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche explained during the long-life initiation that since we are practicing lamrim, the Kadampa teachings, Tara will guide us. Tara promised Dromtonpa’s followers, “I will guide you.” That includes us, as we are practicing lamrim, the Kadampas' teachings, so that naturally means Tara guides us.

Dedication

Good night! Good morning! [We had] a nighttime party. Yangsi Rinpoche requested a talk on thought transformation and the White Tara long-life initiation. I didn’t go over the Eight Verses, the commentary, just the lung of what Yangsi Rinpoche requested, just foo-foo, I’m not sure. [Rinpoche laughs]

Please dedicate the three-time merits collected by ourselves and all sentient beings for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the embodiment of all the buddhas, the only object of refuge and the source of happiness for all us sentient beings.

May His Holiness have a stable life and may all his holy wishes be fulfilled immediately. May the political leaders of mainland China be able to realize immediately that His Holiness is Chenrezig; may they totally devote to His Holiness and be able to fulfill the holy wishes of His Holiness immediately. May they be able to invite His Holiness to mainland China to give teachings to all the billions of the people there who are hungry for Dharma, and may all the people in mainland China be able to open their hearts to have the happiness of Dharma, like the sun shining. May they have total freedom and be able to practice Dharma, and may His Holiness continuously guide like before.

May His Holiness be a leader of Tibet and may Tibetans receive total freedom to get back to their country. May the Dharma be preserved and spread, and may there be more bodhisattvas, enlightened beings, even more than in the past in Tibet. In that way, may they be able to preserve and spread Dharma all over the world in the ten directions and may the Dharma last a long time. By having total freedom in Tibet, may they preserve and spread Dharma. Pray for this.

Dedicate for the student who passed away, Ross Brooke, the benefactor of Vajrapani Center, and also for Venerable Kim’s mother who died this morning, and for all those whose names are given to us, for all those who rely upon for us, who we promised to pray for, and for all those who died, including all the hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals and those who are in the intermediate state, having so much suffering. May everyone be liberated from all the sufferings immediately and may they be reborn in a pure land where they can become enlightened, or may they receive a perfect human body and meet a perfectly qualified Mahayana guru and the Mahayana teachings. May they achieve enlightenment as quick as possible.

Due to all the three-time merits collected by ourselves and all others, may Yangsi Rinpoche have a long and healthy life, and may all the wishes to benefit others succeed immediately. May Maitripa College go as Yangsi Rinpoche intended; may the college be actualized; may it succeed and be completed, and may it be most beneficial for all sentient beings, particularly for this world, by giving Dharma education, Buddhist philosophy, also lamrim and meditation practice. May Maitripa College be beneficial to the whole world, and may everyone who comes here to learn, to take teachings, be able to generate compassion, bodhicitta, and be able to actualize emptiness in this very lifetime. Also, may they actualize the clear light illusory body, the highest tantric path. May everyone become a source of peace and happiness for all the sentient beings, particularly those of this world. May everybody learn these things, and like the Compassion Buddha become a source of peace and happiness for all sentient beings.

So again, good night or good morning.

[End of teaching]

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notes

¹ Bodhicaryavatara, Ch. 8, v.13.

If I do not actually exchange my happiness
For the suffering of others,
I shall not achieve Buddhahood
And even in cyclic existence shall have no joy.

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² Bodhicaryavatara, Ch. 8, v. 129-130.

Whatever joy there is in this world
All comes from desiring others to be happy,
And whatever suffering there is in this world
All comes from desiring myself to be happy.

What need is there to say much more?
The childish work for their own benefit,
The buddhas work for the benefit of others.
Just look at the difference between them!

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