Healing Course continued (Audio and Unedited Transcripts)

By Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Melbourne, Australia 1991 (Archive #874)

The second part of a series of teachings given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Tara Institute in Melbourne, Australia in August 1991. This series formed the basis for the book Ultimate Healing, published by Wisdom Publications.

The first part of the series can be accessed here.

Motivation; The Benefits of Problems

The purpose of my life is to not harm and to benefit to others, the living beings, to every living being who are equaling the infinite sky. The very heart of my life is cherishing other sentient beings, that is, rather renouncing others, cherishing oneself, in place of that, cherish other sentient beings who are the source of all the happiness, all the success and then renounce the self, that which is the source of all the problems and then rather doing only work for self, doing, living the life only for others, for others' happiness, to obtain happiness of all other, every living being. So this is the heart of my life. So, to, what the sentient beings want is happiness, what they don't want is suffering, so to be able to, so my job is to free them from all [pause], undesirable sufferings and causes and bring them, lead them in desirable, happiness, especially the highest happiness, the full enlightenment, the state of mind that which is free from all the mistakes, all the obscurations and completed in all the qualities, the realizations.

So, that, normally in the world, we learn things, we learn handicrafts, we learn many things, however, literature or philosophy or science, we learn so many things, so that you can teach others who need help or who doesn't know, who doesn't have these education, so that you can help them to have this education, and then they can use this education for their living and they can teach also others, so same thing the others use for their living and also to help others.

However, now same, like this, similar like this, so for oneself to bring everyone in this state of omniscient mind knowing everything, the state of perfect, which has completed quality, to bring in this, then if one is not qualified one cannot do that, so, like the doctor that, to educate others, qualified doctor, the doctor who is giving the education, who is trying to give the qualification to others has to be first of all perfectly qualified, so that one can help the others to have perfect qualifications as a doctor or in other words, and then can, as many skills the doctor knows or however, depth, so much experience and depth, knowledge with depth, knowing all the subtle things, then not only the gross checking, gross analysis but also very subtle things, able to understand, able to check, able to discover, so then this way can help the patients to be recovered well, completely.

So, same, now as far as the development of quality of the mind, this development of the mind, the positive mind, to complete the, so to bring other living beings to the full enlightenment, then to do that then one need to be perfectly qualified being, who can guide with all the qualities. Anyway, so therefore one need to achieve the peerless happiness, the full enlightenment and then for that, then I need to develop the path towards that, then also to be able to do extensive works, service for, then in that way doing service for other sentient beings, by developing one's own good heart or the positive mind, wisdom and method, then serving others in that way and then also other practices or services to other sentient beings. For that reason then I'm going to do the healing course. [pause] In order to benefit for all the living beings equaling the infinite sky. [pause]

So generating, so doing this meditation, transforming the mind, the mind which takes the course or mind which does the course, then by transforming this way then, with this attitude then doing the, think, I'm going to do the healing course.

So, one most important meditation, so before the discourse, before the talk, repeating the motivation, repeating again and again the motivation, with what attitude to do the healing course, then this is most important meditation. And this transformation, this meditation that which is transforming the mind from the self-cherishing thought into the thought cherishing other sentient beings. Transforming the mind into ultimate good heart cherishing all sentient beings, working for, dedicating the work for all living beings, dedicating the listening, reflecting, meditation, then all this, dedicating for all the living beings, so this is transformation, this attitude is, so such this transformation of the attitude, the meditation transforming the mind from the self-cherishing thought into the ultimate good heart cherishing all living beings, dedicating the actions, the work for them.

So this is right, immediately, right now, right this minute, immediately we heal the mind, immediately we transform, immediately we heal the mind from the self-cherishing thought, that which is one of the major creators of the problems, from that creator of the sufferings, transform the mind into the creator of happiness, the altruism cherishing all sentient beings, intending to not harm, to benefit for them, so, right now, by doing this meditation, right now, as we transform our mind this way, so right this minute, healed. The previous mind is unhealthy mind, this one, now the second mind become most healthy mind, which doesn't cause any danger to the life and which doesn't cause any danger to anybody and only peace, which only intends for peace, which only causes peace.

Then, not just that, then through this meditation, transforming the mind into the altruism, cherishing all sentient beings, benefiting for all sentient beings, then, this healed and as it transformed the attachment clinging to one's own just this life, so from this worldly, the mind is healed in this minute, that, as it is in that state, altruism, this ultimate good heart, so, mind is healed also from that worldly, from that attachment or the clinging just only to this life.

Then, not just that, then, if the mind, the attitude before, whatever it was, jealous mind, pride or whatever, anger, or ignorance, so now transformed into this ultimate good heart, from those other unhealthy minds, so there is, by transforming just one, doing the meditation transforming the mind in this altruism, cherishing other sentient beings, just by this, it is healed from many other negative thoughts or the unhealthy minds, all those which are the cause of, or the creator of, not just only disease, all other problems.

So, then, with all those other thoughts, there's no peace of mind, there's no peace in the heart, it doesn't bring peace of mind in the heart, but this the good heart, altruism, this, whenever the mind transformed into this [snaps fingers], then immediately that brought satisfaction in the heart, it brought peace of mind in the heart.

So however, yeah, so, then, so what I was talking before, yesterday, so I was talking about the importance of, with, by stopping the thought that which looks at only suffering, that, then, the thought looking at the problem as pleasant, as happiness. Then, so with this, by this practice, then one can transform the problem in happiness, rather disturbing oneself, interfering, it becomes supporting, helping to be able to achieve the realizations of the path, that which is the most important, the ultimate healing, mind and body. Not only one's own healing mind and body, but this is the way, this itself become the method, become the preparation or become the method to heal, to do ultimate healing to every living being whose mind is obscured and who has sufferings, to do ultimate healing to their body and mind.

Then, going over some examples, how to, how the problem is, usefulness, the benefits of the problems. So to be able to look at it positive, to look at the problems, the miserable conditions, to look at it, one need to, they need to appear, rather appearing harm, benefiting to oneself, pleasant. To be able to, the problem in order to be able to appear this way, pleasant, then one has to look at, one's own mind has to look at that way. So how to look at that way is then by thinking of the benefits of the problems, so this is the process. So this is the basic psychology how to eliminate depression, all this loneliness and all these things that difficult to find the answer, difficult to find real solution, answer, cure. So, why so many people their whole life suffer with these things.

However, so, one should know as extensive as possible the benefits of the problems, many different ways, many different points of view. So more extensive one knows, then, the stronger the thought, then it appears more stronger as pleasant, happy, then one is able to establish the thought, like stronger.

However, then, as one thinks how the problem is helps to develop compassion within us, that which is the most important, the greatest benefit of the problems. You can see now as I mentioned, the compassion, how important the compassion is. I gave the example one person not practicing compassion how it can endanger the whole world, how it has endangered in the past, many times, so even recently, there happened, it frightens the whole world by one person's not practicing compassion.

So then, I mentioned that starting from the family, nearest person, then if one practice compassion starting from that person to everybody, every living being they don't receive harm from you, so that absence of harm is peace. For example, even the headache is not completely gone away today, but comparing yesterday, today it's less than yesterday so we think, Oh, much better! Happier, because it's absence of the extra pain which was there yesterday, so because absence of that much pain we call happy, we call better.

Now, same, even the headache is not completely gone away, so same, absence of harm, all other living beings starting from the nearest person, the living being with whom one lives close, every day who live together, starting from that, starting from the family then all the numberless living beings, so they receive peace and on the top of that, by having compassion, you benefit so then again, that means another additional benefit they receive, happiness.

So therefore all this has to come from you, all this is dependent to you, so it's completely in your hand, whether you want to do this or not, whether you want to offer this peace to everyone or not, it's dependent what you do with your mind. So it is completely in each of us, in our hands. So, therefore each of us is completely responsible every living being's, everyone's happiness. So, fully responsible, it's dependent to one's own mind.

Then, first I mentioned yesterday that compassion, without talking other sentient beings, even concerning your own life, peace, happiness, success, how it becomes so essential, so important, without compassion, how the life becomes so miserable or lot of, brings so many problems, the self-cherishing thought, negative thoughts invoke so many problems, it brings so many problems, makes so many obstacles. So however, then, second, especially for the sake of other sentient beings then becomes unbelievable important, needed, the need to have compassion within our mind, within one's own mind, the need, the reason is infinite because numberless sentient beings. Anybody that, all the problems that we hear from the radio, society or individual person's problems, country's problems, world problems, however, the living beings experiencing problems, each of those problems that we hear in the radio, all these become the reason us need to generate compassion, that we need to generate compassion within us, so that we can develop all the rest of the qualities and then with the more power, more knowledge, with more compassion, then can help them.

So however, even the problems that we see in the TV or even day-to-day life that we see person, each sentient being that we see in our everyday life, each living being whose mind is obscured and then having problems in the life, so each of those beings become the reason why we should generate compassion, they become the reason, each person that we see, whose mind is obscured, has ignorance, anger, attachment, obscured and having problems, each person that we see, living being we see become the reason need to generate compassion and need to develop the positive mind. Each insect that we see suffering, that we see animals attacking each other, one animal is controlled by another animal, and going, under the control of incredible fear and suffering, and another animal is under the control of incredible anger or incredible desire, attachment, then, under the control of incredible suffering, the anger or incredible ignorance, incredible attachment, then harming others…