December 11, 1993

[Chanting]

You can do the Vajrasattva mantra, either with prostrations or just reciting. Who can lead the Vajrasattva?

[Students recite Vajrasattva mantras]

Develop the two bodhicittas and the five powers

What we are looking for is happiness in life and we don’t wish to have any problems, therefore we need to find a solution to any problems that we have. As it is mentioned in the Guru Puja [LC 97],

In short, no matter what appearances arise, be they good or bad,
I seek your blessings to transform them into a path increasing the two bodhicittas
Through the practice of the five powers—the quintessence of the entire Dharma—
And thus to cultivate only mental happiness.

In English it starts from this way; it starts from backwards. The Tibetan is like this. So many times I start this way, then I get into trouble! [Rinpoche and students laugh] I get stuck in the middle and get a bit confused how to complete it. Then it becomes like putting pieces of a machine together that don’t fit.

The meaning of the verse is that we train to always be able to keep our mind in a happy state, in peace, in satisfaction. This is not talking about trying to achieve happiness with a selfish mind. It is not talking about that. It refers to keeping the mind in happiness and peace with bodhicitta, the ultimate good heart, benefiting other sentient beings, cherishing others. The essence is that.

No matter what happens we always keep our mind in happiness and peace—whether we are praised or criticized, whether we receive material possessions or don’t, whether we have comfort or discomfort, whether we are treated badly by others and disrespected, or treated well and respected, whether we have a good reputation or a bad one. We are happy and at peace whether we are dying or living, whether we have cancer, AIDS or some other disease or we are healthy, whether we are successful or a failure, whether we are rich or poor. Whatever happens, whether it is a good appearance or a bad one, all these have to do with appearances.

Any appearance that happens, we always keep the mind happy and peaceful. How? This verse contains the answer. It talks about the practice we should do in our everyday life. Whatever our situation, we need to always transform it into the path to develop the two bodhicittas.

One bodhicitta is a conventional truth, the truth for the all-obscuring mind. Conventional bodhicitta is altruism, cherishing others, the wish to achieve enlightenment for all sentient beings. The actual meaning of the other one, absolute bodhicitta, is the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness. Therefore, of the two bodhicittas, one is wisdom and one is method.

So, what it is saying is that whatever situation happens in our life, whether it is good or bad in appearance, we should always use it to develop the wisdom realizing emptiness. In other words, we should use every situation to meditate on emptiness, and the other thing is to develop conventional bodhicitta—cherishing other sentient beings and taking the responsibility of freeing other sentient beings completely on ourselves. Taking the task completely on ourselves—that we alone will do this—is the special attitude.

On the basis of this thought, we then have the thought to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings as the method, as the means to succeed in our task of working for others. This is the task that we have taken upon ourselves completely. So, we determine to use whatever situation, good or bad, to develop bodhicitta.

How do we do this? With the practice of the five powers, which is the essence of the entire Dharma—the Hinayana or Lesser Vehicle teachings, the Mahayana Paramitayana teachings and the Mahayana Vajrayana teachings—all the teachings taught by the Buddha. That’s what it says here, that we take whatever situation, good or bad, to develop the two bodhicittas with the practice of the five powers, which is essence of the entire Dharma.

Whether we experience happiness or unhappiness, we use it to develop conventional bodhicitta with this special attitude of completely taking on the responsibility to work for the benefit of other sentient beings. In that way we use whatever happens, whether it brings us happiness or unhappiness, whatever our life’s experience, in the most beneficial way, making it most beneficial not just for ourselves but for all living beings, for every hell being, every hungry ghost, every animal, every human being, every god and demigod.

We can even use unhappy situations, such as relationship problems or mental illness—, we can use every situation in our life to be of benefit for all sentient beings.

The main goal in life is to benefit others

I often mention this fundamental bodhicitta attitude that brings happiness in our life, especially when I am giving the healing courses where the particular subject is cancer, AIDS, and so forth. This attitude is the fundamental healing method, especially for those who have an incurable disease.

This life looks like there are many different lives. We die, there is an intermediate state, then we reincarnate again, and then, after another short life, we die again. Then, another intermediate state and another short life. It looks like that. We are reincarnating again and again. The main goal of life is not just to be healthy, not just to have a long life, not just to be rich, not just to be educated, to have an education and knowledge. It is not just that. It is not just to be famous in the world or to get power. Whether we have an education or not, whether we are rich or poor, whether we are healthy or unhealthy, whether we are living or dying, whether we have power or not, whether we have reputation or not, whatever type of life we experience, the main goal of our life is to be useful to other sentient beings, to cause them to obtain happiness. That is the main goal of life. There is only one ultimate goal in life, and that is to become beneficial for others, to cause others to be able to overcome their sufferings and obtain happiness. There is nothing higher than this; there is nothing better than this. We cannot achieve a better life than this. There is no better life than to become a bodhisattva.

For so many lifetimes we have made prayers to be like that, to accumulate merit by depending on sentient beings and by depending on the holy objects, the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. We have accumulated so much merit from so many lifetimes to create the cause to achieve the realizations and actualize the root of the path to enlightenment, guru devotion.

Then, there are all those meditations within the graduated path of the lower capable being in order to actualize the realization of renunciation of this life, such as meditating on true suffering and the true cause of suffering, on the sufferings of the human and god realms, on the general sufferings of samsara and the cause of samsara—how samsara is totally in the nature of suffering. There are the meditations on renunciation of the whole of samsara in order to fully cut off the attachment clinging to that. Then, by depending on these preliminary realizations, there are the meditations to develop compassion and loving kindness toward other sentient beings, and then to generate bodhicitta. Through all these realizations, we become a bodhisattva.

The purpose of actualizing all these steps of the path of the lower and middle capable beings, all this is preliminary to being able to cherish other sentient beings, having compassion and loving kindness for them. All these are aimed at that. Finally, depending on loving kindness and compassion, we actualize bodhicitta. This is the practice of these great saints, the bodhisattvas. They think of nothing except other sentient beings. The only concern they have is for other sentient beings; the only thought is working for other sentient beings, obtaining happiness for other sentient beings.

Geshe Rabten and Gen Jampa Wangdu

This reminds me of one of the oldest meditators in Dharamsala, who, like me, was a disciple of Geshe Rabten Rinpoche. I have more than twenty gurus, but I received my first Dharma contact and took teachings from Geshe Rabten, with the recognition of guru and disciple. He was the first teacher who taught me, beginning with the preliminary philosophical teachings, the debating subjects. After Geshe-la did the examination and received the highest geshe degree, as a lharampa geshe, he was invited to help His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The very high incarnate lamas in Tibet, besides having an actual teacher, they also have helpers, geshes who have a very good understanding of the philosophical subjects. They choose to help the incarnate lama for his quick development. They are a bit like a substitute teacher who helps in education so that we can have deep and extensive study and finish the study soon. These people are called Tsenshab.

After that, Geshe Rabten Rinpoche was invited to Switzerland to be abbot of a Tibetan monastery there called Rikon Monastery, which was probably built by the Red Cross to support the Tibetans. Even in Dharamsala, before he left for the West, Geshe-la had been teaching Dharma to Western people for a long time. After being abbot of Rikon Monastery, he founded another monastery called Tharpa Choeling,⁶ which was mainly for Western student monks. There is a very good Tibetan language class there and quite a number of monks have learned Tibetan very well. There have been very good results. Those who studied well for many years became very good translators and some have translated books from Tibetan texts.

However, maybe due to a shortage of merit, some didn’t last long. They didn’t get to continue, even though there were excellent qualified teachers and very comfortable conditions. They only had to pay five dollars for their food and living and they even had a choice of food, whether it was Italian food or some other type of food. This was all due to Geshe-la’s kindness. They all had sponsors and very comfortable conditions but somehow some didn’t last.

Anyway, Geshe Rabten Rinpoche took cancer and passed away in 1986. He has already reincarnated, and the reincarnation is now in Switzerland, looked after by Geshe-la’s closest disciple or Geshe-la’s translator, a high incarnate lama, Gonsar Rinpoche.

I’m just talking about how I had the same teacher as one of the oldest meditators who lived in Dharamsala and Dalhousie (which is near to Dharamsala) whose holy name is Gen Jampa Wangdu. He was the best friend of Lama Yeshe and me. Whenever we went to Dharamsala, it was his company we enjoyed the most, talking and eating with him. Whenever Gen Jampa Wangdu went to Tushita Retreat Centre to see us, it was the best time, the most enjoyable time. He always explained what kind of realizations the other meditators from other places such as Bhutan or around India had achieved, either tantric realizations or the lamrim ones, such as impermanence and death, or guru devotion or bodhicitta. He gave us this information because he would hear it from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He could see His Holiness any time he wanted without having to make an appointment, without consulting the attendants or secretaries. He could just go straight to see His Holiness because he was one of the most successful meditators who has actualized not only the three principal aspects of the path but also the third stage of the tantric realizations. There are five stages and clear light is the third one, which means the meditator can become enlightened in that very lifetime.

I think because Gen Jampa Wangdu was one of the most successful meditators in actualizing the path, he was an exception and could go to see His Holiness the Dalai Lama any time to discuss things with him, to ask questions and to make offerings of his realizations. His Holiness would tell Gen-la of the realizations other meditators had offered to him. When Gen-la told us this and the many other stories of the meditators, it was very inspiring, very encouraging.

What was most enjoyable, however, was when Gen Jampa Wangdu told us his life story, how he was extremely naughty in the monastery where he lived, not studying the Dharma, not following the rules, not following the monastery programs, always fighting and teasing the other monks. There were so many stories. One of his stories was how he teased the other monks by waiting on top of the gate of the monastery and when a monk passed underneath he would spit and blow snot onto him, hitting him on the head. One of the monks he hit with his snot was a very old monk with a bald head. He was Geshe Rabten Rinpoche’s main teacher, from the area of Kham where Geshe-la was born. Before Geshe-la went to Sera, this very highly respected great practitioner taught him and took care of him for many years. I think he might have been the abbot of Geshe Rabten’s home monastery. Anyway, this old monk didn’t clean the snot off immediately. He went on a few steps and then he slowly wiped it off with his woolen zen. He didn’t show any shock or anything. When he saw this was Geshe Rabten’s teacher, Gen Jampa Wangdu ran away as far as he could.

Once in the debating courtyard there was an old monk who Gen-la teased for no reason. It wasn’t that the old monk had harmed him, but Gen Jampa Wangdu picked up a stick and repeatedly beat the old monk’s knees. Later, when Gen Jampa Wangdu was in Dharamsala, he took the aspect of having much pain in his knees for quite a number of days. Usually Gen-la just used his sicknesses for practice; he wouldn’t go to hospital. However, when His Holiness found out about it, he sent Gen-la to a very good, large Indian hospital in Ludhiana with a translator from the private office to help. Afterwards, Gen-la told me that during that time he could remember the cause of this pain. The reason he had so much pain in the knees was because he repeatedly beat the old monk with a stick when he was young. This is what came in his mind so much during that time.

For ordinary beings, such an action as beating a member of the Sangha would be the cause to be reborn in the lower realms and experience the result for an inconceivable length of time, for many billions of human years. Even when they were born in the human realm again, they would have to experience problems due to this past negative karma. However, because a practitioner such as Gen Jampa Wangdu has realized emptiness and bodhicitta and because he had done such powerful purification during his life, the negative karma that for an ordinary being would mean eons experiencing the heaviest suffering, for him manifested as some problem or sickness and then was finished. In the ordinary view, it might be like that; that due to the power of his realizations, all those heavy karmas were finished.

Like the Buddha, only work for others

The main reason I mentioned Gen Jampa Wangdu is this. Once, Gen-la told Lama and me that for seven years he had never been to anybody’s home for himself. That means that he had generated bodhicitta seven years before he said that. He didn’t mean that he had never gone to any other person’s home but that he never went for his own purpose. That is just one example. No activity he did—not just going to somebody’s house, but also walking sitting, sleeping, and so forth—no activity was done for the self. Because he said he had not done this for seven years, that implied that he had generated bodhicitta seven years before.

I also remember, during a conversation about somebody, Lama Yeshe asked how he could ever get angry with that person. He said, “That person is a sentient being. How can I get angry?” I think the conversation was because Lama seemed upset with this person. By saying that, Lama showed that this person was a sentient being, a being who is suffering, whose mind is obscured—that is their nature—so how can you get angry?

The conclusion is that what those great saints, the bodhisattvas, cherish is only other sentient beings; who they work for is only other sentient beings. Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s past lives as a bodhisattva showed this. He accumulated merit for three countless great eons, practicing charity and so forth. He made charity of his eyes and limbs to other sentient beings; he even gave his whole life. For example, there is a holy place where the Buddha gave his entire body, making charity to five tigers, a mother and her children who were starving death. For three countless great eons, during the Buddha’s past lives as a bodhisattva, he made charity of his holy body to other sentient beings. He practiced pure morality for three countless great eons; he practiced patience and perseverance for three countless great eons. No matter how difficult it was to work for other sentient beings, he continuously bore all those hardships, practicing the paramita of patience, perseverance, concentration and wisdom, accumulating merit for three countless great eons in order to be able to achieve the full enlightenment, the cessation of all the mistakes of the mind and the completion of all the realizations. He was able to achieve the goal to do perfect work for all sentient beings without the slightest mistake.

The ultimate goal is to help other sentient beings, to be useful to other sentient beings, to benefit other sentient beings, to free other sentient beings from suffering and to obtain happiness for them. This has been the goal of the numberless past, present and future buddhas. This is why they have become enlightened, and, after having completed all the realizations and achieved enlightenment, this is what they do. They do nothing except to benefit other sentient beings, to be useful to other sentient beings.

Experiencing problems for others

The reason I was saying all this is to show there is nothing in life better than this. What better life is there than working for other sentient beings, for ourselves to be useful to other sentient beings? It just took a little bit of time explaining the stories but anyway that’s the essence.

There is only one ultimate goal in our life. If we don’t make our life useful to others, even if we live for a thousand years, even if in that time we never have AIDS or cancer or any other disease—if we are completely healthy in that thousand years—what would be the use of that life? It would be completely empty. There is nothing interesting in such a life.

On the other hand, even if we have AIDS, relationship problems, whatever problem we might have, even if we are dying—even if we are actually experiencing death—if we can make the experience beneficial to others, if we are able to make our life useful in helping others obtain happiness, the ultimate goal of our life has been obtained. That is the heart, the very essential thing.

Even if we are able to benefit one person and bring them happiness, our purpose for living has been obtained. Our life has been successful, fulfilled. We put so much effort into living, into surviving, for our home, our protection, our health, our body, our entertainment. Having a home is expensive, buying food and clothing is expensive, medicine is expensive, taking care of our body, from our head down to our toes, is expensive. However, trying to keep healthy and have a long life and all these things, our life becomes fulfilled and completely worthwhile when we are able to bring another person happiness. Even if we are only able to serve one other person, all those unbelievable expenses and all that effort needed in just being alive are worthwhile.

If this is so when we are healthy, there is no question this is the best way to make our illness and death most beneficial. Experiencing AIDS, cancer, even death, on behalf of all other sentient beings [is the most worthwhile thing we can do.] The best way to experience death is when we die on behalf of all other living beings, allowing them to have everlasting happiness, free from all suffering and its causes. When we take on the suffering of others and experience it for them, even experiencing death is for them.

In this way, we are even using death to develop bodhicitta, conventional bodhicitta. That is how we can keep our mind happy, peaceful, tranquil, satisfied, even while we are dying. Because we are using the experience of dying to be beneficial for other sentient beings, because our mind is one of bodhicitta, our state of mind is something completely different [from an ordinary person’s]. It has no worries, no fear at all; we feel completely happy.

When the goal of our life is just to be healthy and have a long life, or just to have a good education or be wealthy, or just to have power or a good reputation, then that attitude becomes a source of problems. It becomes the root of all the problems we have in our life, the root of confusion. But it is completely the opposite with the other attitude. When the goal of our life is not just being healthy, having long life, power, wealth, reputation and so forth, but the goal of our life is to be useful, then no matter what we experience, whether there are good or bad experiences, whether we are successful or we fail, the most important thing is to be useful to others, to help bring happiness to other sentient beings.

As soon as we have that attitude, it immediately transforms our mind. So much confusion, so many problems are cut off. We are suddenly free from all the problems related to the previous attitude which came from attachment, from ego, from clinging to the happiness of this life. Then suddenly, even if we have AIDS or cancer, it doesn’t bother us. It doesn’t seem important. Before, when our goal was only a long and healthy life, there was so much fear and depression. We were so frightened of death.

You can clearly see how all these problems are related to that selfish attitude, how they originated from that attitude. But now our mind has been transformed by this new attitude where we want to be useful to others no matter what is happening in our life. Then things like AIDS, cancer, things that are normally regarded as life threatening, are no big deal; they don’t bother us much because our main focus is being useful to others.

We can make our life useful especially when we have problems such as these diseases. They can make us determined to make our life even more beneficial for others, because having these problems makes us practice the Dharma. Without the problem, we become lazy but when we have problems, they persuade us to seek a solution. They make us meditate, practice the Dharma, practice bodhicitta. It makes us look for the best solution, the one that will make our life most beneficial for the numberless sentient beings, and we will see that the solution is altruism, the thought to achieve full enlightenment for the sake of all other sentient beings.

Having these problems makes us put into practice the teachings we have received from the holy mouths of our virtuous friends. This is the Buddha’s message to us: the lamrim teachings, the bodhicitta teachings, the teachings on thought transformation. This is the advice from the numberless buddhas of the past, present and future; this is their message to us. It makes us put into practice whatever teachings we have heard or studied, and then whatever happens to us, whatever good or bad appearance we experience, it doesn’t bother us. It is not important because our main goal, being useful to others, is achieved.

Therefore, now you can see how this attitude is the source of happiness, peace and success in life, how it is the root of happiness and peace. When our mind is transformed into this attitude, we immediately find satisfaction. Why are we here? Why do we have a precious human body? The reason we are alive is to be used by others for their happiness. As soon as we have that attitude, immediately there is satisfaction. With the old mind, the old attitude, we could live for billions and zillions of years but we would never find satisfaction. The way to find satisfaction is to transform problems into happiness, to enjoy problems. How do we do that? By thinking of their benefits.

Maybe I’ll stop there.

Notes

⁶ Tharpa Choeling, located in Mont Pèlerin, Switzerland, was later renamed Rabten Choeling. [Return to text]