Yesterday we were discussing what makes the four things—discomfort, not receiving materials, bad reputation, criticism, hearing uninteresting or disrespectful words—bother us, disturb our mind and make our mind emotional. So, what makes these things become problems, serious problems, is clinging to the four opposite objects: comfort, receiving materials, good reputation, praise, hearing interesting or respectful words. If you have strong desire clinging to these four things, even an insignificant thing—some small discomfort, some small criticism, a few uninteresting or dissatisfactory words, not receiving some small thing—your mind becomes so emotional, so upset. Because of your strong desire seeking the opposite conditions, even small undesirable changes in your life are blown up into huge problems. You believe them to be huge problems and create greater worry and fear.

Whether these four undesirable conditions bother your mind when you meet them, and how much they disturb it, is related to how strong your desire is for the four desirable objects—comfort, receiving materials, good reputation, respectful words, praise.

So, in reality, your mind becomes emotional because of your desire clinging to these four objects. This is what makes your life unstable. Also, when you meet these four other objects—comfort and so forth—your mind becomes emotional because of your desire. The desire clinging to these four objects is itself a kind of uptight, painful mind. When you strongly grasp at these objects, it's as if your heart is painfully stuck to the object. You find it very difficult to separate from the object, and even though you do not have to separate from the object yet, you have worry and fear about the fact that you might be separated from it.

While you have strong desire for an object, the desire obscures you from seeing the shortcomings of the object, from seeing the reality of the object. While the desire is rising strongly, it doesn't allow you to see the shortcomings of desire itself or of the object. It causes you to hallucinate about the real nature of the object.

When you analyze the nature of the desire that is clinging to an object, you find that it's not peaceful, so that itself is another problem. In reality, the thought of the eight worldly dharmas—the desire clinging to the four desirable objects and wanting to avoid the four undesirable objects—doesn't give any peace to the mind. When you meet the four desirable objects, you have an emotional problem; then when you meet the four undesirable objects, you have another emotional problem. Both situations disturb you and don't give you any peace in the heart. Mainly because of the thought of the eight worldly dharmas, the desire clinging to this life, no matter which object we meet in our everyday life—praise or criticism—we have a problem.

From this analysis we can see what it is that stops us finding satisfaction in life, from having peace in our heart—the thought of the eight worldly dharmas.

As I mentioned yesterday, not having desire for a person, not having a mind that clings to someone, doesn't mean that you renounce the person as an object of your compassion and loving kindness. It doesn't mean that. These are two different things. Giving someone as an object of desire and giving up someone as an object of compassion and loving kindness are different. That person is an object of strong compassion and loving kindness, but they are not an object of attachment. It is a common experience in our lives that someone can be an object of compassion and loving kindness, but not an object of desire.

With compassion and loving kindness there is better communication. With a sincere heart, you communicate better with others. I think that having more self-cherishing thought, more impatience, more desire makes communication difficult.

With a sincere good heart, you simply think that the other person needs happiness and through understanding that you do whatever you can to help them, in spite of the difficulties involved.

In reality, as long as we have this thought of the eight worldly dharmas and follow it, whatever happens is a problem. You can understand this by analyzing the effect on your mind when you meet an object that you desire. For example, all the problems that people are experiencing day and night in this city, relationship problems, family problems, and that we hear about on the radio or read in the newspapers all the time, the whole thing is a story about living life with this thought of the worldly dharmas. It's all about emotions and worries and fears. All these things that people are experiencing in the city, the things we see on TV and in the newspapers, are about living life with this thought of the worldly dharmas. All these ups and downs—people committing suicide or killing somebody else—come from the thought of the worldly dharma. Your desire wants something, wants one of the four objects, and when somebody interferes with your getting what you desire, you kill them, or maybe you make plans for years to kill them, directly or indirectly. Desire makes your whole life incredibly involved for yourself and for other people.

The whole aim is simply to get the four desirable objects and not to have to experience the four other undesirable objects. This is what the desire, the thought of the worldly dharmas clinging to this life, wants. Day and night you are kept busy by worry and fear that you will meet one of the four undesirable objects, that you will not receive some material or some friend, that you will not find the object that desire wants. Then even when you find the object, you don't find satisfaction, so again you go looking for a better object or more objects.

It goes on and on like this as long as you keep this thought of the worldly dharmas in your heart. As long as your life is associated with that, this is how your life goes. When you lose the object of your desire—your friend doesn't love you and gives you up, or something happens so that you lose them—if you cannot kill the person who has interfered with your desire, with your own self-cherishing thought, when you cannot do anything to control the situation, you have a nervous breakdown. Your mind goes wild, then you go crazy. Also, when you cannot control the situation, when you cannot cope, because of desire, the thought of the worldly dharmas, your last solution is the decision to commit suicide. You are so obsessed by your problem that you cannot eat, cannot work, cannot sleep. Then you even have a lot of physical problems, such as back pain and chest pain. There's no space in your mind. Desire doesn't give you space in your mind for anything except the thought to commit suicide.

In conclusion, the shortcomings of the thought of the worldly dharmas are infinite, and this is just talking in general about the obstacles in life that come because of this desire, the thought of the eight worldly dharmas, even to somebody who doesn't practice Dharma.

As mentioned in the Bodhicaryavatara, “If one does not know the secret of the mind, which is principal sublime meaning of Dharma, even if one wishes to achieve happiness and eliminate suffering, one wanders without purpose in samsara.”

In the words of another quotation, “Existence depends on the point of the intention.” This means that what is called hell, this heaviest suffering, came from the mind, from the negative intention. And what is called full enlightenment, this peerless happiness, also came from the intention. What is called samsara, the defiled aggregates that create the future samsara, the six suffering realms, also came from the intention. I mentioned this morning how it came from ignorance. And what is called nirvana, this ultimate, everlasting liberation, also came from the intention. What is called happiness came from the intention; what is called suffering also came from the intention. So, everything comes from the mind; everything depends on the tip of the intention, our attitude or motivation in everyday life.

Let's take the example of four people who give away money to a beggar—it doesn't matter whether they are rich or poor. The first person gives the money with the motivation to achieve full enlightenment, the omniscient mind with fully developed wisdom, compassion and perfect power, so that they can free every sentient being from all sufferings and obscurations and lead them to the peerless happiness of full enlightenment. With that intention they give money to others. This person's action of giving becomes the cause of their achieving the peerless happiness of the full enlightenment for the sake of sentient beings.

Now, the second person gives money not with the motivation to achieve full enlightenment for the sake of sentient beings, but to achieve ultimate liberation, which means liberation or release just from all their own suffering and its causes, just from their own samsara. This person's action of giving doesn't become the cause of their achieving the peerless happiness of full enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings; it becomes only the cause of achieving ultimate liberation for themselves, this lower nirvana.

Now the third person gives the money with the motivation to obtain happiness in future lives. He doesn't think about the ultimate happiness of liberation, release forever from all suffering and its causes; his intention is just to obtain happiness in future lives. So with this motivation, they are giving the money. There is no question that the previous two people's actions of giving money become the cause of happiness, but even this person's action still becomes the cause of happiness, the happiness of future lives. This person's action of giving did not become the cause to receive full enlightenment for sentient beings, and it did not become the cause to achieve ultimate liberation for self, but it did become the cause to achieve the temporary happiness of future lives.

Now the fourth person gives money with the motivation to get a reputation, expecting that later when they are in trouble and need help that the person will help them, in order to get the four desirable objects and not experience the four undesirable objects. For that reason they give the money. In other words, they give the money in order to get a good reputation, to receive praise from other people, or to receive something in return. The conclusion is that the fourth person's action of giving money is done with the desire clinging to the happiness of this life, only the temporary happiness of this life.

Now the important thing to know is the borderline between what is Dharma and what is not Dharma, between what is the cause of happiness and what is not the cause of happiness. This distinction between what is Dharma and what is not Dharma, what is virtue and what is not virtue, what becomes the unmistaken cause of happiness and what becomes the unmistaken cause of suffering, is very important. The fourth person's action of giving money did not become the cause to achieve full enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings; it did not become the cause to achieve the ultimate liberation for self; and it did not even become the cause to obtain happiness in future lives. This action of giving money that is done only with the thought of the worldly dharmas, clinging to the temporary happiness of this life, did not become virtue, did not become good karma. This is not a positive action. Why not? This action is not the cause of happiness, so because of that it is not virtue, and it did not become Dharma. Even though the person might believe that what they did was the way to obtain happiness, their action did not become the unmistaken cause of happiness.

I don't know about the motivation of the person who stole the donation box right after I came here. However, people who steal generally think that stealing is a way to obtain happiness. Even if they do steal the money and use it to enjoy themselves, their experiencing enjoyment is the result of another action, a past positive action. It is not the result of stealing, but of another virtuous action done in the past. Because it is done with the motivation of self-cherishing thought, seeking happiness only for the self and wishing harm to others, with one of the poisonous minds—ignorance, anger, or attachment—the action of stealing is negative, and it leaves an imprint on the mind that results in sufferings, such as the four types of suffering results. (If you complete a negative action, you experience four types of suffering results.)

Therefore, even though the person believes that stealing is the way to obtain happiness in life, what they believe and reality are two completely opposite things. The actual result of this action is not happiness, but only suffering, which has to be experienced sooner or later. Stealing is the condition, but not the main cause of the person experiencing comfort and enjoyment. The main cause is another action, a positive action, done in the past.

And it is the same here with this fourth person who gives money to others but with the thought of the worldly dharmas, with desire seeking happiness only for the self, and only temporary happiness and that of only this life. That attitude is a non-virtuous thought. Attachment clinging to this life is a non-virtuous thought; it is not Dharma. Since that thought is not Dharma, the action motivated by it, giving money, did not become Dharma, did not become virtue. It is not a positive action; it is only non-virtue. Even though that action doesn't harm or kill the other person, it is non-virtue and its result is only suffering.

Dromtönpa, who is the embodiment of Chenrezig, Buddha of Compassion, and Lama Atisha's translator, once asked Lama Atisha, “What is the result of actions done out of an attitude clinging to this life?” Lama Atisha answered, “The result of actions done with the mind clinging to this life will be rebirth as a hell being, hungry ghost, or animal.” In the Kadampa teachings on lam-rim, it is explained like this.

Actions have to be made virtuous through the attitude. Actions have to be made the cause of happiness through the mind, through the attitude. What determines whether an action is virtue or non-virtue is whether the mind becomes virtue or non-virtue. Whether or not an action becomes Dharma—in other words, the cause of happiness—depends on whether or not the attitude, the creator of the action, becomes Dharma. Whether an action becomes virtue or not depends on the motivation. The mind, the attitude, determines whether an action becomes Dharma, the cause of happiness.

Attachment seeking only the temporary happiness of only this life does not become Dharma. It is a non-virtuous thought, so any action done out of it does not become the holy Dharma. The attitude does not become holy Dharma and the action does not become holy Dharma; both the attitude and the action are worldly dharma, which result in suffering. Like this, whether an action become virtue or non-virtue depends on the intention or the motivation of the mind, whether that is virtue or non-virtue.

These are the main points that we have to be aware of in our everyday life. Twenty-four hours a day, whether our activities—eating, sleeping, walking, sitting, working—become the unmistaken cause of happiness or the unmistaken cause of suffering depends on our attitude during the twenty-four hours.

If our activities ín the twenty-four hours are done with only this attitude—the thought of the worldly dharmas clinging to the temporary happiness of this life—then all these activities do not become holy Dharma; they all become nonvirtue, they become only the cause of suffering. But if the twenty-four hours’ activities are done with the attitude of bodhicitta, with the altruism to achieve full enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings, then during these twenty-four hours our activities become the cause of achieving enlightenment. If they are done with the attitude seeking liberation for the self, then they become the cause to achieve liberation for self, and if they are done with the motivation to seek happiness for the future lives, then they become the cause for that. All these attitudes are not seeking, not clinging to the temporary happiness of this life—they are seeking the opposite. All these attitudes are seeking happiness, but they are not seeking happiness of this life, not clinging to the happiness of this life. All those three other attitudes become holy Dharma, so all the actions become Dharma, holy Dharma. So all these actions become the cause of happiness.

In our everyday life, by watching the mind, if the motivation becomes nonvirtue, the thought of the worldly dharmas, by recognizing that then transforming it into Dharma, the activity becomes the holy Dharma. However, what makes the life most meaningful—what makes the life most profitable, most beneficial—is doing the work, doing the activities with altruism, with bodhicitta. Even if we do not have the actual realization of bodhicitta, but we have the creative or effortful motivation of bodhicitta, the altruism to achieve full enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings, and then we do the activities, we should try to do the work in the twenty-four hours with that attitude. And then if that is not possible, we should try to achieve liberation for self with that attitude; if that is not possible, then at least happiness of future lives. So we should try to have this attitude for all the twenty-four hours activity that we do—even meditation, prayer and reciting mantra.

By understanding this point, what makes the twenty-four hours actions become the cause of happiness or the cause of suffering is our attitude. The kind of attitude, the very border of the virtuous motivations and non-virtuous motivations, Dharma and non-Dharma, the motivation which is holy Dharma or worldly dharma, depends on whether the mind is following desire, whether the attitude is possessed by the desire clinging to the happiness of this life or not. The border for our action happens from the motivation and this determines whether it becomes the holy Dharma or not.

Therefore we can see the importance of watching the mind in our everyday life and not being possessed or overwhelmed by the thought of the worldly dharmas. Otherwise the actions interfere with virtue, they do not become cause of happiness. So therefore we can see the incredible importance of the determination to cut this, to eliminate this, to free ourselves from this. Meditating on impermanence and death is just one meditation, however there are many other techniques. There are fundamental meditations such as this, then not controlling, not letting to arise, freeing oneself from this thought of the worldly dharmas, and then in this way the mind and the actions become constantly pure Dharma. So, this is an important point to understand.

The other thing is, as I described before, all of society's problems—family relationships, AIDS and cancer, so many of the sicknesses—all these things come from desire, then because of desire, other disturbing thoughts arise and cause different sicknesses. So like that, as I mentioned before, the life stories that we see on TV—what we hear and what we actually see happening all the time, every day—all these incredible things, all these involvements, are all a creation of this desire.

So therefore, now we can see that there would be incredible peace if there was no thought of the worldly dharmas; there would be incredible peace, incredible freedom in the life. By recognizing desire and all its creations, all the problems, we can see that if we don't have this, if we are able to eliminate, to cut this, then how much incredible peace or freedom there would be in the life. Our whole, entire problems would not not there. So that is why in the teachings it talks so much about happiness by practicing Dharma, how there is great happiness and peace by practicing Dharma. It is talking about that point.

The Kadampa geshes are the disciples of Lama Atisha, who brought the Buddhadharma in Tibet when there were corruptions happening. Lama Atisha wrote the main text, the Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, and then from there, the teachings of the extensive path and profound path spread to those who are his direct and indirect followers.

The Kadampas are the direct followers, the disciples of Lama Atisha. The direct followers, those Kadampa geshes, are all those who completely cut off the thought of the worldly dharmas through meditation on the teachings, such as impermanence and death. By meditating in the life, they cut this off, and generated bodhicitta, realized emptiness and also practiced tantra—the Highest Yoga Tantra path, the secret mantra. They practiced very secretly and dedicated their whole life to actualizing the whole path to enlightenment, and by bearing difficulties and much hardships, then they completed the path.

So for all these practitioners, called Kadampa geshes, any teaching—even seeing two words or even one word from the alphabet, it appeared for them as an instruction, as an advice or instruction to achieve enlightenment. Any teaching of the Buddha—even one word from the alphabet, such as ka (Tibetan)—there's nothing to leave out, everything appeared for them as an instruction to achieve enlightenment. All the Buddha's teachings appeared as instruction, as a practice, so it’s called Kadampa.

Their instruction, their experience is giving up this life, renouncing this life. This means renouncing the desire clinging to this life. Renouncing this life does not mean not wearing a dress, not eating food, torturing oneself—it doesn't mean that.Renouncing this life is not like that. The Kadampa geshes put up the question, “Isn't renouncing this life giving up the happiness of this life?” They put up this question. It looks like that when we hear this, if we don't know how to think. Renouncing this life looks like we cannot experience happiness in this life. “Renounce this life” sounds like we are not allowed to experience happiness, but it is not saying that.

As I mentioned just before, after describing all these things, the whole life problems are created by this thought of the worldly dharmas, this desire, so there is great peace without that, by renouncing that. So we can see from that point and from the point of motivation, what creates happiness. We can see from that point, renouncing this life doesn't mean we are not allowed to experience happiness. That is completely a misunderstanding. Renouncing the life doesn’t mean avoiding the happiness of this life. If you are wondering how we can achieve happiness by renouncing this life, then it answers that question. Experiencing happiness in this life is not by expectation. If we desire greatness, then the opportunity is stopped. If we desire to go higher, then we fall down the precipice. If we think, “I want to be comfortable, I want luxury, I want to be like this,”—if we expect that happiness, we find it doesn't happen. Even we can recognize this, we can realize this.

So for example, there are many millionaires and people who tried everything that they can think of to make themselves happy with external things, friends and possessions. So they tried everything with these external things, whatever they knew, whatever they could think of in the world. They tried everything that they could afford and even those who could afford it did everything, but still didn't find satisfaction. They tried everything, so therefore then they had great depression, because whatever they could see in the world, whatever they could try in the world, they did. Nothing gave them satisfaction, so they were very disappointed, they didn't see the meaning in life and they were more unhappy than even a poor person.

Even we can recognize, can realize this. But if we think, “Oh, no need! There's no need,” we will be happy. If we have the attitude of no need, if we think, “No need,” then our life becomes happy. .

I heard the story about Dro__________, one great yogi, who was a shepherd looking after sheep. Before he ate tsampa he made an offering to his guru, but one time—I don't remember now, I've forgotten—he put tsampa in his mouth first and he forgot to make the offering, so he took it out and made the offering. I'm not sure, that part I'm not sure about. Anyway, that part I thought I heard, that he put tsampa in his mouth and he forgot to make an offering. Usually before eating and drinking anything, we should make an offering if we have taken refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. So, I thought I heard that he put it in his mouth before he made the offering, then he took it out and made an offering to his guru. I'm not a hundred percent sure on that point.

Anyway, he made the offering—he threw the food—and his guru, even though he was at some other place very far away, the tsampa, the food, went into the guru’s mouth, it hit the guru’s mouth. I heard this story from one Nyingmapa, one great meditator, who passed away a few years ago.

So this yogi, I have seen also his dresses and robes in America, in early times, when I went to America, the first or second time. So one American man who has a yoga center or something—I'm not sure if its Hindu or not—so it's a center and a restaurant together. He has huge paintings done on the wall like a Tibetan monastery; usually the monasteries have paintings of the guardians outside, so like that, he has those paintings done. However, one other American man called Michael, I think he got some very old Tibetan statues from Bhutan, I don't know, and inside the statue were these materials, the yogi's dresses. The dresses still had a scented smell, even though it was a long time ago. He kept in his cupboard the long dress, the yogi's dong-ka, zen and a few things. They still had a scented smell. So, this American boy, Michael, sometimes dressed up in these, then he held the purba in his hand—the tantric wrathful implement, the skull or something— so when he dressed up in this great yogi's robes, he felt lifted up, he felt very positive, very kind of high, like having taken drugs.

Anyway, __________ gyari, so he said, “In the door of the experienced one, there is the happy person,” [Tib: ?goyang], I think goyang. Usually we say this is kind of relaxed—you are relaxed, lying down, enjoying or taking a rest. So goyang is lying down, but actually what it means is there are no worries, no fears. There is not all this expectation, there are no worries in the mind, you are enjoying things, having peace in the mind and a happy life.

We can have a happy life by continuously practicing Dharma, by everything becoming Dharma. “In the door of the experienced one there is a happy person lying down or relaxing, enjoying.” But the person who seeks delicious food doesn't know this, he doesn't know this happiness, this relaxation and freedom from desire, not looking for delicious food, not craving. We are grabbing out of desire, and if we cling to the delicious food, we don't know there is such happiness of life without clinging. We don’t know there is such great peace in the life that is without clinging—by renouncing the desire there's incredible happiness and peace in the life. We don't know that those other people who do not have that desire have incredible peace and happiness. If we have desire for this delicious food, we don't realize this, we don't feel this.

Then, “In the door of the remedy, in the door of the person having the remedy, there is a person relaxing, lying down.” That's the expression, but what it means is enjoying the life, relaxing, free from desire. There is a person lying down who has renounced the thought of the worldly dharmas, but this is not known by someone who has attachment and anger. But there is the other person who is so happy, who is enjoying incredible freedom and peace in the life, by renouncing the thought of the worldly dharmas. Someone who constantly follows attachment and anger doesn't know that there are people who have incredible freedom and happiness in the life by not having that, by renouncing the thought of the worldly dharmas. They have incredible freedom and peace. He doesn't understand that, doesn't know that.

Then, it says, “In the door cutting the root,” probably “the house” might be better than “go in the door”, maybe just “the house”. It says gokang, so I'm not a hundred percent sure; go is door, but gokang, puts it together, so maybe it's house, in the house, like that. Gokang, so a house having a door. I don't why it's always put together as house having a door, so I'm not sure about that point, but to make it simple, maybe we can say “in the house”.

“In the house having cut off the root, there is a happy-minded person lying down.” This means without any desire, the person is free from desire, but it's put in different way. First the person in the house is the experienced one, and then secondly, that person who has the remedy is in the house. It doesn't mean having medicine for sicknesses; having the remedy means knowing lam-rim—someone who knows lam-rim meditations and who does practices such as the guru devotion.

The person who knows lam-rim and who practices that, has the remedy. It’s like having medicine for a particular disease, so like that, having the remedy to destroy the thought of the worldly dharmas, to destroy or to free oneself from the enemy, the thought of the worldly dharmas. So there is a person lying down—there is a person who has renounced the world and is lying down.

Then, “In the house, one who has cut off the root,”—“cut off the root” means, as I mentioned before, how desire is the root of all the life problems. For somebody who practices Dharma, this desire is the main obstacle. The biggest obstacle for meditation and completion of Dharma practice is this thought of the worldly dharmas. This is the biggest obstacle. Every day this is what makes Dharma practice not become Dharma; not become pure. In everyday life, in our twenty-fours’ actions what doesn't allow these to become Dharma is this thought of the worldly dharmas, the desire. What makes our life meaningless in this way is desire. “In the house of the one who has cut off the root,” means the root of the problems, so in that house there is the happy-minded person lying down.

But we are filled with expectations and doubts, as I mentioned before, thinking, “Oh, I might get discomfort or unhappiness, or I might not receive all these material things. I might get criticism or a bad reputation.” There are all these doubts and all these expectations of the four desirable objects. The mind is filled with expectations of these things. We are filled with doubts and expectations, and we don't know that this person in the house has a happy mind and is relaxing, completely free from all the problems, free from the worldly thoughts and the root of the problem. Our mind is filled with doubts and expectations because we don't know about this great happiness that somebody has by renouncing all this.

In other words all these things become secret to anyone who is the opposite, so that is why sometimes people say, “Well, if you renounce attachment, that means you renounce yourself, that means that you don't exist. If you renounce attachment, that means that you are renouncing yourself, making yourself to not exist.”

If we say this, somehow our mind itself is attachment—the I or the mind itself has to be attachment. So, life is oneness with the attachment and we think that when we are without attachment, we completely destroy our life, we completely stop our life. That's what we think, because we are talking according to our own life, according to our own understanding and experience. According to this experience, we live our whole life with attachment, and we think that if we are alive then we have to have attachment, otherwise there's no life. This is only what we can see—we cannot see how we can live the life without those disturbing thoughts, so it's like that here.

Then it says, “In the house of the one who has satisfaction, the rich person is lying down, but the desirous person doesn't know this.” I'm sure the English can be made much more poetic, but it’s just very simple. There are people in reality who have found satisfaction by not following desire, the thought of the worldly dharmas. They have found satisfaction, so they have found what they want. They have found satisfaction, so there is real peace and happiness and they are rich. Without problems, they are enjoying life, they are relaxed, lying down, free. But the desirous person—the person whose life is filled with desire, only following desire—doesn't know that there are people who, by not following desire, have satisfaction and are rich. That person doesn't know this. So, I will stop here.

There's a little bit more, so I'll continue that tomorrow anyway. It's lam-rim tomorrow? So there are pieces, I think maybe I will continue this part as I intended, then tomorrow is Monday, right? So on Monday night I will finish this part. Then if there's time, we can do one thought transformation practice where everybody has to become a peacock, dancing in the garden. I'm joking, anyway! No. The thought transformation practice is called “The Peacock Destroying the Poison,” it's a thought transformation that’s basically a bodhicitta practice. So I’ll stop here.

Due to all the past, present and future merits and the three times merits accumulated by others, and by the buddhas and bodhisattvas, due to all this may the bodhicitta, altruism, which is the source of all the happiness of oneself and all sentient beings, may it be generated within one's own mind and in the minds of sentient beings. For those who have it, may it be developed.

Due to all the three times merits accumulated by myself and by others, buddhas and bodhisattvas, due to all these merits, which are merely imputed by the mind, may I, who is merely imputed by the mind, achieve full enlightenment, which is merely imputed by the mind, and lead all sentient beings, who are merely imputed by the mind, to enlightenment, which is merely imputed by the mind.

As mentioned at the beginning, in this morning's discourse, like this please dedicate the merits intensively, by sealing with emptiness. In this way, by dedicating the merits, by sealing with emptiness, the merits cannot be destroyed by anger and heresy. Otherwise, if you put so much effort, first of all it is difficult to create the merit, and it is rare because it is difficult; it doesn't happen naturally. We need a lot of effort, then after that, if anger and heresy arise then that cannot destroy the merits. Therefore it's very important not just dedicating for enlightenment, which makes the merit unceasing, like putting one drop of water into the ocean that becomes unceasing, because that drop got mixed with the ocean, so we can use that for a long time, because it is unceasing, so like that. Dedicating the merits for enlightenment becomes unceasing, and not only that, it protects the merit so it is not destroyed by anger and heresy, so we should dedicate by sealing with emptiness. In this way it becomes pure dedication, unstained by the concept of true existence.

When we are dedicating merit, but putting together our own merit of the three times with the merit of the buddhas, bodhisattvas and others, then dedicating, it becomes much more powerful. It's like collecting money from each person, and then when the money is put together, even though what comes from each person is small, when it's collected it becomes huge. Then we can buy whatever we want, whether we buy a property or build a house or whatever, we are able to do that because like that, it has power. Similarly, we can dedicate our own three times' merits as well as the merit of the buddhas and bodhisattvas, because buddhas and bodhisattvas' merits don't have an owner. They don't think, “This is mine.” When they create merit, they don't think, “This is my merit,” and because of bodhicitta everything is dedicated for sentient beings, so the merit doesn't belong to them, even though they created it. So they don't think, “This is mine.” Therefore we can dedicate their merits all together, so it's like the example of the money, and it becomes more powerful, like that.

Due to all the three times merits accumulated by me and by all other beings, after dedicating for the long life of His Holiness, the virtuous friend, then all the three times’ merits accumulated by me and by all other beings, buddhas and bodhisattvas, due to all these merits, may myself, my family and all sentient beings be able to meet the perfectly qualified Mahayana virtuous friend in all the future lives, and from our own side may we be able to see only the fully enlightened being and to do only the actions pleasing with the body, speech and mind and to be able to fulfill the holy wishes of the virtuous friend immediately. If we are able to do this, then it is the root of success in the life, the highest enlightenment, and it brings all sentient beings to enlightenment. All our success comes from this, so this dedication is very important in the daily life.

As the three times buddhas have dedicated their merits, I will dedicate all my merits in the best way to quickly enlighten all sentient beings, to liberate them as quickly as possible.

Due to all the three times merits accumulated by myself and by all other beings, may the pure teachings of Lama Tsongkhapa, the unification of sutra and tantra, be actualized within my mind and within the family, all the students, all the members of the organization. May this be actualized in this very lifetime, especially bodhicitta and the clear light from the Highest Yoga Tantra. May I be able to spread the Dharma in the minds of all sentient beings and lead them to enlightenment as quickly as possible and receive all the necessary conditions to bring benefit for the sentient beings and for the teachings extensively.

Thank you very much.

[End of Fourth Discourse]