Lecture 19
THE MAIN MIND AND MENTAL FACTORS
According to the traditional practice of the lineage lamas check the motivation to listen to the teaching and also the righteous conduct of listening to the teaching.
I mentioned one morning about buddha potential. The Tibetan word is rig, which is similar to the blood as in blood generation or race, like king’s race and so forth. It’s the same name, the same spelling, as blood generation, race. The same name is used here but the meaning is different. The race of the buddha, the potential of buddha—just translating the word, the “race of the buddha.”
There is buddha nature in us, in every sentient being’s mind. Even the tiniest creature that can only be seen by a microscope has buddha potential or buddha nature, or the “race of the buddha” within the mind. It’s in the mental continuum of all us sentient beings, in every hell being, in every preta being, in every animal being, in every human being. No matter how many problems we have in daily life, no matter how many evil actions we have created, no matter how heavy that negative karma is, the fully enlightened being’s nature is there in everyone’s mental continuum.
First of all, the ultimate nature of the mind is the clear light; the ultimate nature of the mind is that which is called clear light. Then there’s the conventional nature of the mind. The conventional nature of the mind is the nature of the mind that is true for the all-obscuring mind, for ignorance, the concept of true existence. It’s the nature of the mind that is true for the all-obscuring mind that holds the concept of true existence, the concept of inherent existence. It’s the mind as it appears to the all-obscuring mind, to this ignorance.
Of the aggregates of body and mind, this other nature of the mind is the mental aggregates on which we label “I”, which is called in Tibetan, she pa, “knowing phenomena.” Knowing phenomena is that which is colorless, shapeless and formless, but whose nature is clear and knowing, in that it knows the object. As I already mentioned before, like the object that is clearly reflected in a mirror, when the mirror and object meet, when those two things are together, then the object is clearly able to appear in the mirror. Here, the object is able to appear clearly to the mind like a mirror. Like the mirror and the object stay together, the object is able to be clearly reflected in the mirror, like this, the nature of the mind is this knowing phenomena; it is clear and it perceives objects. That is the definition of the mind. Another name is “knowing phenomenon.”
This knowing phenomenon is the “mind” when we say “body and mind.” Within this there is a principal mind or consciousness—there are six types of consciousness—and then there are fifty-one secondary minds, called mental factors.
First of all, what is the meaning of consciousness? It’s just the mind that does the function of knowing the essence of the object. That is the definition of consciousness, the function of consciousness. Of the secondary mental factors, there are fifty-one. They are called sem jung in Tibetan. I haven’t heard an exact translation of sem jung word for word. It’s normally translated as “mental factors.” What clarifies it is by adding the word “secondary.” That already makes it somewhat clearer. By adding the word “secondary” to “mental factors” that clarifies something; that makes it more specific. So in Tibetan the fifty-one secondary mental factors are called sem jung.
Mental factors are minds that arise as a surrounding or support for the principal consciousness, like the entourage and the king that come together and work together. The principal consciousness is like the king and the fifty-one mental factors are like the entourage that come together and work together. Even though the king and each of the people that surround him have different functions, different activities, they are all working for the same goal. Even though they are all working for the same goal, the king has his own function, then there’s a person called the secretary who does a different function and so on. Each person does different activities, has different functions. So sort of like that.
So, there are these fifty-one mental factors that arise as a surrounding of the principal mind, the consciousness. For example, the consciousness of the mind just knows or perceives the essence of the buddha’s holy body. Then, from the fifty-one secondary mental factors, which are called sem jung, one of them is remembrance. This is the secondary mental factor or sem jung that functions to not forget the object. On the basis of perceiving the essence of the object, the buddha’s holy body, the particular function of remembrance, which differentiates it from the principal consciousness, the principal mind, is to not forget the object. On the basis of the principal consciousness perceiving the essence of the object, its particular function that differentiates it from the consciousness is to not forget the object.
Each of the secondary mental factors has a different function. By analyzing how many different types there are, there are fifty-one. The definition of sem jung or secondary mental factor is a mind that, on the basis of perceiving the essence of the object, does a particular function related to that object.
Each mental factor has its own function based on the object that the principal consciousness perceives. It functions according to its label. According to what label it has, it does that specific function. The Tibetan sem means “mind” and jung means “arising” so sem jung means “arising from the mind,” which shows these secondary minds arise from and act as a surround for the principal consciousness.
There are five similarities between the secondary mental factors and the principal consciousness. The first is the similarity in the object. Whatever object the principal consciousness focuses on, the secondary mind also focuses on that same object. That’s the similarity in the object. Then there’s the similarity in time. Both the principal consciousness and the mental factor are born together, exist together and stop together. Then, there’s the similarity in the aspect. As the consciousness becomes the thought of, say, a blue car or the thought of a table, then the secondary mind is also in that aspect. Then, the similarity in the substances, or in other words the similarity of being in the same realm: the desire realm, the form realm or the formless realm. If the principal consciousness is a desire realm consciousness, then the mental factor is also the same, a desire realm mental factor. That is the similarity in substances or the similarity in the realm.
I don’t remember the other one but there are about five similarities.22
Of the fifty-one mental factors or sem jung, there are five that definitely understand or ascertain the object and five omnipresent mental factors. Then, there are eleven virtues such as devotion and awareness—being careful not to create negative karma—being shy about creating negativities and so forth. There are about eleven mental factors that are virtues.23
Then there are the nonvirtuous mental factors such as attachment, anger, ignorance, pride, jealousness, wrong view, the view of the changeable aggregates and so forth. The view of the changeable aggregates is the mind that looks at the aggregates that are in the nature of change and apprehending that the I is inherently existent. For example, when we say, “I’m going out” or “I’m going back to my room to sleep,” or “I’m going to sit down.” We say these things because the aggregates of the body are going to go out or go back to the room. We say, “I’m going to sit down,” because the aggregates of the body are going to do the action of sitting down. Whatever function the aggregates are going to do, we label, “I’m going to go back to my room to sleep,” or “I’m going to sit down here.” But how our mind, how our ignorance, apprehends the I doing these things is different. The way our mind, our ignorance believes the I that is going to go back to the room to sleep exists is different from reality. The I is based on these aggregates that are doing this function—sitting down, going to the room and so forth. That I is merely imputed on the aggregates based on their function, which is reality, but it doesn’t appear to us in that way. It appears as inherently existent, as a real I from its own side, unlabeled, not being merely labeled by the mind. The I appears like this for our mind, the ignorance, and then we apprehend it like that. The I appears as a real one existing from its own side, unlabeled, not merely labeled by the mind.
The view of the changeable aggregates means we see the I wrongly, as not being merely imputed onto these changing aggregates. By depending on the reason, by focusing on that, “I’m going to do this and that,” even though it’s merely imputed by the mind, it doesn’t appear that way. It appears as the opposite, as inherently existent, and our own mind, ignorance, believes that is true. So, the view of the changeable aggregates is the wrong view that apprehends the I as inherently existent, the I that is believed by the ignorance.
How is it translated? Do you remember? How is this one translated, the title? The view of the change? View of changeable? The view of the changeable group.
Anyway, it seems to be referring to the aggregates. The view is to do with the aggregates but the wrong view is to do with the I. But why it’s related to the changeable group that are the aggregates is because by focusing on the aggregates we believe that the merely labeled I is inherently existent.
Of the fifty-one mental factors, there are six root delusions, starting from attachment, and then twenty secondary delusions. Then there are four changeable phenomena, such as sleep. Sleep can be virtuous or nonvirtuous. We can transform our sleep. It can be virtuous or we can transform it into nonvirtue. Then there is regret, which can be positive regret or negative regret. It’s negative regret if we feel regret that somebody is practicing Dharma or somebody’s doing retreat and the same if we feel regret when we hear that somebody has renounced this life, cut off clinging to this life, and is living an ascetic life. It’s negative regret if it’s about something positive we’ve done or somebody else has done—if we’ve taken ordination or taken precepts or if somebody else has—and we regret it. First we took the initiation commitment, then afterwards we feel regret having taken it. All these things are negative regret, negative upsetness.
And then there’s positive regret. Positive regret is thinking how we didn’t get to practice Dharma and realizing that we have wasted our life, this perfect human rebirth that we have. We feel regret for having wasted this precious human life or this perfect human body, that we didn’t get to practice in the most skillful way, we didn’t get to practice Dharma or that we practiced Dharma but didn’t practice the lamrim. We might have practiced Dharma, doing preliminary practices, reciting a lot of mantras, doing many other virtuous actions and so forth, but we didn’t actually get to meditate on the lamrim. We didn’t really get to meditate on the actual path, that was left out. We didn’t get to actually experience the renunciation of samsara, bodhicitta, emptiness—those common paths—and the particular path of the Highest Yoga Tantra. We didn’t get to do the actual practice that makes life most practical, most meaningful, by training the mind in the actual path. So, even though we have done many other virtuous actions, many other practices, the real practice is left out. When we feel regret that we have not been skillful in our practice, that is positive regret.
Feeling regret that we didn’t get to live our life with a bodhicitta motivation, that we’ve created negative karma, that we’ve degenerated our vows, these regrets are positive because they help us direct our life, to put our life into Dharma practice. It redirects our life from one that doesn’t practice Dharma into one that does Dharma practice, and into the most pure Dharma practice. It refocuses our life to meditate on the actual lamrim path. Regretting having created negative karma, degenerated vows, the precepts, the pledges, the samaya and so forth persuades the mind to purify those negative karmas, those obstacles that interfere with achieving the realizations of the path to enlightenment. Then it helps to practice many of those practices of purification by doing prostrations to the Thirty-five Buddhas or doing a Vajrasattva retreat in order to purify all those negative karmas accumulated from this life and from beginningless past lives, all those obstacles for developing the mind, all those causes of the sufferings, now and in the future. This regret persuades our mind to do those various powerful purification practices that purify all these obstacles, all these obscurations, those negative karmas.
With conceptual minds, there are two types. One is finer; one is rougher. There are four changeable mental factors, sleeping, regret and so forth.24 There are four phenomena that are changeable.
There are fifty-one secondary minds. If you want to know about them in more detail, there are translations of these texts. You can study those things. This is just an idea.
BUDDHA NATURE
In regards to the nature of the mind, there are two ways to recognize this. There’s the clear light nature of the mind, which is the ultimate nature of the mind, and there’s the perceiving phenomenon, which is the conventional nature of the mind.
What is the mind? What is the knowing phenomenon? What is the mind? The phenomenon, the base on which we label “I” is the aggregates, which are the body and mind. The mind or the knowing phenomenon is that which is colorless, formless and shapeless and whose nature is clear and perceiving the object. That is the reason, that is the base on which we label “mind,” on which we label “knowing phenomenon,” she pa. It is that phenomenon that is formless, colorless and shapeless and is clear and perceives an object. Of the base, the aggregates on which we label the I, there is the body and mind, of the body and mind, this is the mind.
Based on this thing that is shapeless, formless and colorless, that is clear and perceives an object, this phenomenon that exists merely imputed on the base, because of this reason, we make up the label, “mind” or “knowing phenomenon” or “she pa.” It depends on the language. If it’s Tibetan, we make up “she pa”; if it’s English we make up “mind.”
However, this mind that appears to us is completely wrong. What we believe, this mind, how it appears to us so far, is completely wrong. So far the mind has been appearing to us as concrete, as a real one, as a real one from its own side. It feels like it’s something within us, something real, concrete, existing from its own side. It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with our own mind putting the label. Here, we’re talking about the subtle refuting object, the object not merely labeled by the mind, seeing there’s a real mind from its own side. So far, the mind has appeared to us that way, and we’ve believed that is how the mind is, a real mind existing from its own side. So you can see, according to the previous analysis, this mind that has been appearing to us so far and that we have believed in—something real from its own side—that’s a complete hallucination. That’s completely empty; it doesn’t exist at all.
As I’ve just mentioned, the mind exists; it’s a phenomenon that is shapeless, formless, colorless, clear and knowing, therefore it exists, but how our mind perceives it to exist, within the concept of our mind, the idea about the mind that we have made up, that it exists from its own side, that is a complete hallucination. There’s no such mind, a real one from its own side. It’s totally a hallucination. It doesn’t exist at all. Or looking at it the other way, this phenomenon exists because of the reason that it’s merely imputed [on the base]. It’s merely imputed and we believe in that.
So you can see, from this analysis there’s no such real mind existing from its own side. There’s no such thing. When you analyze, there’s no such thing. That real mind we thought was there, the one we have believed in, that real mind, that inherently existent one, existing from its own side, that is completely empty, right there, right there, it’s completely empty right there.
So that is the clear light nature. That is the ultimate nature of the mind. That is the emptiness of the mind. That is what is called the clear light nature of mind. That is buddha nature. That is buddha nature. That is buddha nature, the buddha’s race. That is buddha potential, buddha essence.
UNDERSTANDING BUDDHA NATURE BRINGS HOPE
Because we have this nature of the mind that is clear light, that is buddha nature, the essence of buddha, if we meet the good condition by meeting a virtuous teacher who reveals the right path, the path that is virtue, we are able to achieve liberation and enlightenment. The path of virtue is capable of leading us to liberation and full enlightenment; it’s the path to liberation and enlightenment. [It’s also the path to] the happiness of future lives. When we hear about the incredible, inconceivable, long-term happiness of future lives, we should remember the inconceivable length of time this long-term happiness is. There is nothing to compare with this life, which is a few years, a few months, a few days—depending on the sentient being, depending on the human being, it may even just be a few hours.
This way it makes sense to think about how our future lives’ happiness, liberation and enlightenment all depend on the path that is virtue. By having met the perfectly qualified virtuous teacher who shows us the unmistaken path, by having met the good conditions, this mind, which has buddha nature, can go all the way to enlightenment. The continuation of the mind goes to enlightenment; we are able to achieve enlightenment.
But now if this mind, which has buddha nature, meets bad conditions, the nonvirtuous teacher, the nonvirtuous friend who misleads us, who gives us wrong conceptions, who leads us on the wrong path that only leads to suffering, to samsara, to the lower realms, then the mind gets degenerated and then we go to the lowest realm, to hell, the narak realm, the heaviest suffering. It makes us experience the heaviest suffering of samsara, hell, on this mental continuum.
If we meet a perfect virtuous teacher who shows us the perfect path, then we’re able to experience full enlightenment on this mental continuum. So it has potential, but depending on the bad conditions or good conditions we meet, it can be the best, the highest enlightenment or it can go down to the lowest, the heaviest suffering, hell.
It’s just like the example of ringing the gong, when you ring the gong. The potential for making the sound is there in the gong but the gong needs to meet the condition of somebody hitting it for the sound to be made. When the gong meets the condition of being hit, because the potential to make sound is there in the gong, the sound is there. It doesn’t come from outside, it’s there already. It doesn’t have to come from outside, somewhere else. It’s already there. Making sound or whatever function an object is supposed to do is there. With the gong, it’s a question of meeting the stick.
It’s similar how butter can be produced from milk. The potential is there. The butter doesn’t come into the milk from somewhere else. It is already there. It’s just a question of meeting the conditions that make the butter be produced from the milk.
And similarly, a magnifying glass that can produce fire and burn things. That power is already there. It doesn’t have to come from somewhere outside into the magnifying glass. It’s already there. To be able to fulfill its function to burn things, it’s a question of meeting the right conditions: the sunlight, the sunbeam. If the condition, the sunbeam, doesn’t meet the magnifying glass, then it can’t function. Even though the potential is there, it can’t function. When the sunbeam hits it, when it meets the condition, the sunbeam, then because the power is already there to burn things, it’s able to function.
Like these examples, the potential to be completely free from all fears, from all suffering, from all the obscurations, all the mistakes of the mind, all the problems, the potential to achieve the highest enlightenment, it’s there. It’s always there. It has always been there on our mental continuum from beginningless rebirths, from time without beginning. It’s there all the time. It’s just a question of whether we choose the right conditions, of what kind of conditions we choose and we meet.
Therefore, there’s always hope. Life is full of hope. No matter how much heavy karma we have, no matter how evil a life we have lived—even having killed many millions and millions of people—there’s always the potential to be free from all these things, to be free from all these fears, to be free from all these negative karmas, it’s always there. It’s always within us.
It is in our own hands. It depends on us. That freedom to be completely free from all the fears, to be able to achieve ultimate liberation, the whole thing depends on whether we choose the right conditions are not. And that is in our own hands. That is in our own hands.
Therefore, since life is full of hope, there’s really no need to be depressed. Even though we might have met the Dharma a long time ago but there are still so many obstacles, there’s still so much failure in our Dharma practice, even though we might be unable to continue to practice, there’s still all the potential because of the clear light nature of the mind, that which is buddha nature. There’s always hope it can get better.
There’s no need to be depressed, thinking that life is hopeless, that we’re hopeless, that we can’t do anything, that we can’t develop our mind. That is completely wrong. Thinking that life is always suffering, that life is always problems, that there’s no way to end the suffering, all that is completely the wrong concept. Thinking that it’s all hopeless, that life is only suffering all the time, the thought comes to commit suicide, to kill ourselves. All these things are due to not knowing that we have all the potential, that our own life is full of potential, full of hope and not knowing none of these obscurations are permanent. They are not permanent.
The mistakes of the mind are not permanent; they’re temporary. Like the clouds in the sky are not permanent; they’re not there all the time. They are just there for some time. Just like this, strong anger, attachment, the dissatisfied mind, all these mistakes of the mind, all these obscurations, are temporary because they can be ceased. They are temporary because they can be ceased. As I just mentioned, by meeting the right conditions and practicing Dharma, they get ceased. By actualizing the path, by realizing emptiness, and developing wisdom, these mistakes of the mind get ceased. Therefore they are not permanent; they are temporary.
Since the obscurations are temporary, then all our fears, all of life’s problems, everything is temporary. No matter how incredibly huge the problem seems—the relationship problems, where everybody in the ten directions, including the family, criticizes us, where nobody loves us, nobody takes care of us, nobody thinks of us—all these things are just for the time being. All these problems are temporary.
If a friend or somebody leaves us; if a friend or somebody we completely trust or rely upon lets us down, it’s like falling into a fire, like somebody putting a needle in our heart. It’s so painful that there’s nothing else we can think about except killing the other person or killing ourselves.
However, if we think of buddha nature at that time, if we remember buddha nature, our own ultimate nature, the clear light nature of the mind, buddha nature, this has all the potential and because of that then all these problems are temporary. They’re not permanent. The causes of these problems can be purified, therefore they are temporary. What we are experiencing now—this year, this month, this week, today—it’s temporary.
So I’ll stop here.
You should dedicate intensively like this, by sealing it with emptiness. Therefore, as I mentioned, until we reach the path of conjunction, what is called the tip, there’s a possibility for heresy to arise toward the holy objects, towards the guru and the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. There’s always the risk for heresy to arise until we achieve that level of path, the path of conjunction, what is called the point or the tip. Anger and heresy can destroy the merit. In this way, by dedicating the merits and by sealing them with emptiness, the merits can’t be destroyed by heresy and anger.
“Due to all the merits, past and present and future merits, and then the three-times’ merits accumulated by the buddhas and bodhisattvas, as well as the three-time merits accumulated by sentient beings, due to all these, may I myself, my family and all sentient beings, in all lifetimes be able to meet the perfectly qualified virtuous friend.”
Lecture 20
THE EIGHT MAHAYANA PRECEPTS MOTIVATION: THE DISADVANTAGES OF SELF-CHERISHING
[Rinpoche and the group chant the preliminary prayers together.]
As it’s mentioned by great bodhisattva, Shantideva, in A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life, the Bodhicaryavatara,
All the happiness there is in this world
Comes from wishing others to be happy.
All suffering there is in this world
Comes from wishing myself to be happy.25
However much happiness sentient beings have, including all the day-to-day life’s pleasures and comfort up to the highest happiness they can achieve, full enlightenment, all this comes from wishing happiness for other sentient beings. All the sufferings and all the problems sentient beings experience come from wishing happiness for themselves.
What he is saying is that all the happiness comes from the altruism or pure thought cherishing other sentient beings, the thought that wants to obtain happiness for other sentient beings. All the problems and all the sufferings come from the self-cherishing thought, the ego-centered mind, cherishing only ourselves, wanting to obtain happiness only for ourselves.
The verse that comes after this is:
What need is there to say more?
The childish work for their own benefit,
The Mighty Ones work for the benefit of others.
Just look at the difference between them!26
Probably the reason why the example of the child is used is because a child lives his life only working for himself, only cherishing himself. With that attitude he does the work with body, speech and mind only for himself. Why? Why are beings whose attitude to life is only cherishing themselves and doing the work with the body, speech and mind for themselves, why are they called children? Because generally speaking children, small babies and children, day and night they only wish to play. For example, their only wish is to not go to school, to not work, but all day long to be able to play. Doing only what they like, their wish is only to obtain their own comfort and pleasure. And, unless they’re put in the situation where they’re asked to study and do this and that, unless they’re forced into that situation by their parents, their wish is just to play. This is their wish and this is what they would do. Here the emphasis is doing only what you like, which is working for your own happiness alone.
And the second thing is that children don’t do the important things. Children don’t like to do important things. The general character of children is they don’t like, they don’t want to do important things.
And the third thing, the third example, is children playing in the sand. They make houses, things like that, in the sand. They put their feet in the sand and put the sand on top of their feet and make a house. Then they think, “This is my house” and they really cherish it. “This is my house,” “This is my this and my that and my this and my that.” Then if somebody disturbs it, if somebody destroys it they get really upset. If somebody breaks it or destroys it, they get really upset and they cry and get really angry and worried. When something happens like that and the child gets angry and cries and things, grown-up people see that as a childish act.
Normally, when a small child does this, a grown-up person wouldn’t say to the child, “How childish that is.” We don’t say that. In the view of the grown-up person, that thing that the child is upset about is not serious; it’s a child’s act. However, when a grown-up person acts like this, getting upset over meaningless things, doing things without much purpose, that are nonsense, acting like a child, then we tell them they are being childish. When a very old person speaks or acts like a two-year-old, speaking nonsense, we think he’s behaving like a child.
So, as I mentioned, children don’t want to do important things; they only want to play. There’s no concern for important things. Their wish is to play all the time. The wish they have is only to obtain that comfort; they are only thinking of their own comfort and are not concerned to do important things. And, the third thing, like the example I gave of the child making a sand house, if something happens, if some obstacle happens, they get worried or get angry and they cry and all these things. The third thing is in the view of grown-up people that is nonsense.
Therefore, sentient beings who live their life with only the thought of seeking happiness for themselves, who live life with the self-cherishing thought, are called children. Those sentient beings are called children. For example, if a child spends time only playing, never putting effort into education and doing those important things, the general idea is that he will have a difficult life. If he doesn’t have education he will have a difficult life in the future, difficulty finding jobs and so forth. That is the general idea. He can’t have a successful life if he never puts effort into having an education and so forth, those important things, and if he lives his life only doing what he wants to do, spending his lifetime only playing.
It’s similar with one who lives his life only with the self-cherishing thought. He won’t succeed in the important things, he won’t succeed. As long as there’s the self-cherishing thought, there’s no place for bodhicitta, the altruistic thought that cherishes other sentient beings and, with that thought, wishing to achieve enlightenment for them. The thought doesn’t arise to succeed at that, for the success of the work for other sentient beings and to achieve full enlightenment. Therefore, by having the self-cherishing thought, which is a childish attitude, we can’t achieve enlightenment for all sentient beings. That means it can’t happen that we can lead every single one of the numberless sentient beings to full enlightenment. We can’t lead them.
If there’s the self-cherishing thought abiding in our heart it doesn’t allow us, firstly, to generate bodhicitta, and because of that it doesn’t allow us to achieve enlightenment, and finally it doesn’t allow us to lead all sentient beings to enlightenment.
The second thing, if there’s the self-cherishing thought abiding in our heart, it doesn’t allow us to practice morality. Why? It doesn’t allow us to practice morality because with the self-cherishing thought worldly concern, the attachment clinging to this life, arises.
When we take precepts, when we take the ordination of morality and when we live in that, we have to live in this with the attitude of cutting off the attachment to this life, with the determination to be free from this whole, entire samsara, cutting off attachment to all the samsaric perfections, to samsaric happiness. The fundamental attitude that takes the ordination of living in morality has to be this. The correct way to do it is this. This is the motivation, the attitude which contains the fundamental purpose of practicing morality.
Without this renounced mind, without this pure mind, this pure attitude that has renounced attachment to these things, we can’t bear the hardships, there’s no inspiration. Without this proper attitude we find difficulties; we see taking precepts or living in the precepts as a suffering, as a difficulty, as a prison. If we don’t have that pure mind, then living in the precepts becomes a problem. Rather than enjoyment it becomes a problem, it becomes a difficulty in life. We see it as a problem in life instead of seeing it as a means to free ourselves from the whole, entire suffering and from the cause of suffering, a fundamental method or path to free ourselves from the samsara.
The self-cherishing thought, this attachment clinging to this life and to samsaric happiness, makes it difficult to bear the hardships of the practice, of taking and living in the precepts, of the practice of morality. The conclusion is that it doesn’t allow us to practice morality. And, without morality, without the fundamental practice, the higher training of morality, we can’t progress. We have to live in pure morality in order to be successful in the second realization, the higher training of the concentration, shamatha, calm abiding. By taking the mind through the nine categories, the nine levels, we obtain calm abiding; not just being able to do perfect one-pointed concentration without any obstacles, we completely cut the attachment-scattering thought mind and the sinking thought and attain the rapturous ecstasy of the extremely refined body and mind. We can’t achieve this calm abiding, this special rapturous ecstasy of the extremely refined body and mind, this second realization.
Without this, we can’t achieve the third realization, the concentration that is the unification of shamatha, calm abiding, and the wisdom realizing emptiness, the equipoise meditation in emptiness. We can’t achieve this third realization, the higher training of great insight.
If the self-cherishing thought abides in our heart it doesn’t allow us to practice the higher training of the morality, the training that stops the negative karmas, which allows us to abstain from the negative actions of body and speech, the harmful actions, the nonvirtuous actions. That doesn’t happen. These negative karmas that obscure the mind become the cause of suffering, and become the obstacle to develop the mind on the path.
Having the self-cherishing thought in the heart doesn’t allow us to practice the higher training of morality, the pure morality that is the cause of the successful second realization, the higher training of the concentration, which in turn controls the delusions, the disturbing thoughts. That doesn’t happen. And because that doesn’t happen, the self-cherishing thought that abides in our heart doesn’t allow us to achieve the third realization, the great insight that cuts off the delusions completely. Completely. It completely cuts off, eliminates, the delusions, such as the concept of true existence, ignorance. That doesn’t happen.
Therefore, the self-cherishing thought doesn’t allow us to achieve the ultimate liberation, the complete cessation of the whole entire suffering and causes. The self-cherishing thought abiding in our heart doesn’t even allow us to achieve the happiness of future lives, the long-term happiness, even that temporary happiness, because what makes us achieve long-term future-life happiness is again practicing morality and practicing charity. Because of the self-cherishing thought, worldly concern or the attachment clinging to this life, miserliness arises, not allowing us to practice charity. Therefore, the self-cherishing thought doesn’t allow us to create the cause for future lives’ happiness. That’s how it interferes with us even achieving the temporary, long-term happiness of future lives.
If the self-cherishing thought, the ego, is strong, then the attachment clinging to this life also becomes very strong. The stronger the attachment is, the easier anger arises. The happiness of the I becomes so important. In the view of the self-cherishing thought, the I becomes so important, so precious, therefore, my happiness becomes very important. My happiness and this life’s happiness becomes very important.
Anybody who does a small thing disturbs us so much. Even birds making a noise when we want to meditate or when we want quiet to have a sleep—even a dog or a bird making a noise outside, or somebody talking—even a small thing becomes a big disturbance. Even if the decoration of the house is slightly wrong in our view, how things are put on the table, how things are decorated—even just a little bit in the wrong way according to our point of view, it’s the wrong way—this becomes very important. There are things in the house put in a slightly different place than where we’d like them. The other person put them in this place where we don’t want them to be, moving them from there, putting them here, here. It’s supposed to be there, but she moved it here. It’s supposed to be that way because we put it that way. Whatever it is. Even a tiny mouse just going on the roof, making a little noise, just some noise, something we’re just able to hear, even a rat just quickly passing through the room. While we’re not expecting rats to run, it comes through.
If we expected it, there’d be no problem. If we expected it, if we opened our mind toward rats, there’d be no problem. But if our mind is closed toward the rat, when we’re not expecting it, when we’re not wishing it, then the rat just quickly runs through, close to us, it becomes incredibly terrifying. Terrifying. Incredibly shocking. A big shock. There’s a rat in the house! A big shock! Immediately we want to move into another room or into another hotel where there’s no rat.
The stronger the self-cherishing thought is, the stronger the attachment to this life, so the worldly concern is there. In the view of that mind, the I becomes so important, my happiness becomes so important. This life’s happiness becomes so important, so when there’s a small disturbance, which is such a nonsense to be worried about, it becomes a big upset. Even a tiny thing, some small noise, the way the person looks at us, the way the person behaves to us, the way the person walks in front of us, or how the person passes in front of us, keeping the body like this. The way the person shows the body or keeps the body, with the eyes looking at us, completely screwed up tight or whether there are some wrinkles there. Whether there are some wrinkles around, stretching out the skin or completely tight when the person sees us. Depending on this, what we do with these things, the changes to the skin, how we keep the eyes, big or fine or whatever. How the person passes us, or behaves or speaks or looks at us. Even the movement of the eyes. Even a small thing, with a movement of the mouth or with a movement of the cheeks or the shape around the mouth—if that person doesn’t behave the way we like, if the person doesn’t behave exactly the way we like, if the person doesn’t do exactly what we expect, what the self-cherishing thought expects, what attachment expects, then it becomes a huge upset. If that person doesn’t do exactly what we wish, it becomes a great upset, a great unhappiness. It causes a great depression.
The stronger the attitude is like this, the more important first my own happiness is, then the happiness of this life becomes that much more important. We make it so important because of these attitudes, the self-cherishing thought and attachment. Then it becomes so important that everything should be exactly how we want it. Our mind, these wrong conceptions, the self-cherishing thought, attachment, all this makes it so important. Everything we see, all the five sense objects we experience have to be exactly how we want them—it’s so important—and when they are not we are so unhappy.
Of course, it’s difficult for everything to be exactly how the self-cherishing thought wants. Nothing can ever be exactly like that all the time. For it to happen exactly like that all the time is difficult. What happens instead is, since we care so much about even a tiny thing, even small problems become a distraction. Even a small thing has to be exactly what the self-cherishing thought, what the attachment, wants, so when things don’t happen that way, when they’re not exactly according to our own self-cherishing thought and attachment, almost everything becomes a distraction. Almost everything becomes an enemy to us. People, animals, material objects and even places, because they’re not exactly how we want them to be, they become a kind of enemy, the cause of anger or of unhappiness.
What blocks people from becoming our friend is the self-cherishing thought. The stronger our self-cherishing thought is, the stronger the attachment, worldly concern, and therefore the more difficult it becomes for people to like us. From this wrong attitude, because whatever action we do is a selfish act, it becomes uninteresting, unpleasant, even harmful to others. How we act becomes harmful to other sentient beings. Especially when they see our attitude, it becomes painful. That’s why people don’t want to become our friend, or if we manage to make a friend why it doesn’t last. This is also because of the self-cherishing thought, this attachment, this strong clinging to this life. It’s what makes everyone become our enemy; it’s why we don’t get along with anyone.
Wherever we go, East or West, whether we live in a city or in the countryside, whatever company we keep or whoever we live together with, there’s so much disharmony, so many disasters. We’re always experiencing so many problems, always receiving so much harm. Even if we live alone, having this attitude creates so much loneliness. The stronger the selfish, self-cherishing thought, the stronger the attachment clinging to this life is, the more suffering of loneliness.
Conversely, the less self-cherishing thought, the less attachment clinging to this life there is, there’s less loneliness, there is less depression. There’s more peace, more happiness, more success in the life.
These are just a few examples that show how all this unhappiness in life, all the ups and downs, are related to our own mind, to our attitude, to these concepts. All these troubles, all these problems in life, the whole thing is to do with the self-cherishing thought.
If we are unable to find a job, there are difficulties, but even if we have found a job there are still difficulties. Working also depends on getting on with people, whether people like us or not. We might have a job but there are always others interfering with it. Whether we are teaching in a university, a college, a school or whatever, whatever job we are doing, there are other people interfering with our job, not letting us continue the job. There is a lot of competition, there are lots of obstacles to the job. Other people dislike us; they’re jealous of us.
First of all, there is karma created from past time. Out of the self-cherishing thought, we did one of those nonvirtuous actions from the ten nonvirtues. Out of the self-cherishing thought delusions arose and then we did those actions from the ten nonvirtues. Our actions became negative karma. Because of the negative motivation—covetousness, ill will and so forth—we interfered with other people’s success in past lives. With this kind of attitude and action, in this life, even if we have found a job there are many obstacles, such as other people interfering with us and being jealous, always trying to create problems for us, wanting us to lose our job. It depends on past karma. It comes from the past karma created by the self-cherishing thought and it is also dependent on our present-life attitude as well.
From the beginningless rebirths it’s been like this. It interferes so much even for the success and happiness of this life. Without even talking about the long-term happiness of future lives, it becomes a great obstacle even for our day-to-day life happiness, even for the success of this life’s work.
From beginningless rebirths until now, what has made our life, what has made our mind, empty of realizations? Why we haven’t had any realizations, why our mind has been empty of them from beginningless rebirths until now, is because of the self-cherishing thought. These are the shortcomings of following the self-cherishing thought.
What has made us from beginningless rebirths until now experience the general sufferings of samsara? The eight types? The six types? The three types? All the general sufferings of samsara? From beginningless rebirths until now, what has obliged us to experience the general sufferings of samsara is again the self-cherishing thought. And what has made us experience the particular sufferings—the sufferings of the narak, the pretas, the hungry ghosts, the animals, the humans, the devas—those particular realms’ sufferings numberless times from beginningless rebirths is also the self-cherishing thought.
If we continue to follow the self-cherishing thought, then the same thing will happen. It will continuously make our mind empty, without any realizations. We will have to endlessly experience the general sufferings of samsara and the particular sufferings of each realm, without end. Therefore, this self-cherishing thought is extremely harmful. This is the most harmful one, the most harmful enemy.
All sentient beings could become our enemy and get angry at us and all sentient beings could even kill us. Even if all sentient beings got angry, became our enemy and killed us, that alone wouldn’t make us be reborn in the lower realms. But if there’s the self-cherishing thought, because of that, delusions arise that create those nonvirtuous actions, which then causes us to reincarnate in the lower realms without choice and to experience those sufferings for such an incredible length of time. It causes us to wander there, to die there and be born there again in the lower realms for an inconceivable number of times, for eons.
Without the self-cherishing thought, without the delusions creating the negative karma to be reborn in the lower realms, even if all sentient beings became our enemy, even killed us, that alone doesn’t make us be reborn in the lower realms and suffer for an inconceivable number of times. Therefore, this self-cherishing thought is much more harmful than all the many enemies there are on the outside. However many outside enemies there are, the harm they do is nothing compared to the inside enemy, the self-cherishing thought.
No matter how many atomic bombs there are that endanger our own life, without the self-cherishing thought, if we don’t create the karma to receive harm from those atomic bombs, to receive this life danger, there’s no way to experience the danger of the atomic bombs. There’s no way. Even if there were numberless atomic bombs in the world, nothing could endanger us, nothing could harm us, if we hadn’t created the karma out of self-cherishing. And even if all those bombs killed us, they alone couldn’t make us be reborn in the lower realms. But even if all these bombs didn’t kill us, if there’s the self-cherishing thought, then depending on this delusions arise that produce the karma to take rebirth in the suffering realms, in samsara. That’s what makes us experience death, rebirth and death. That’s what makes us reincarnate in the lower realms and then experience all those sufferings.
Therefore, the self-cherishing thought, this inner enemy, is much more harmful than however many atomic bombs there on the outside. If we compare the outside harm, the dangers of the atomic bombs, with the inside harm, the dangers of the self-cherishing thought, there’s no comparison. All that outside danger of the atomic bombs is nothing compared to the danger of the self-cherishing thought and how it has been harming us all the time.
EXPERIENCING DISEASE WITHOUT THE SELF-CHERISHING THOUGHT
Without the self-cherishing thought, if we experience AIDS, cancer or any heavy disease, we can use this disease to become a great, quick, very powerful purification. We can experience this disease in order to benefit all sentient beings. It becomes a very powerful, very quick way to finish the work of purifying the obscurations and a quick way to finish the work of accumulating extensive merit. As we are experiencing the disease for the sake of all sentient beings, even in each second we are accumulating infinite merit. So experiencing these diseases without the self-cherishing thought becomes the quick path to enlightenment, like practicing tantra. It’s like doing many hundreds of thousands of Vajrasattva retreats, like doing many hundreds of thousands of prostrations with the Thirty-five Buddhas’ names, like doing many hundreds of thousands of preliminary practices.
When we experience this disease on behalf of other sentient beings, without the self-cherishing thought, then there will be great compassion, bodhicitta, for other sentient beings. Therefore, it becomes incredibly meaningful, worthwhile, to experience. It’s the means of quickly purifying, very powerfully purifying, and a quick way to accumulate extensive merit in each second. Like this, it’s a quick way to achieve enlightenment and to liberate sentient beings.
The whole experience becomes an incredible means. Even if we have to experience this disease for a hundred years, for a thousand years, even if we have to live our whole life with this heavy disease, it becomes a hundred-year retreat, a thousand-year retreat—however long we have the disease. It becomes a very meaningful retreat.
If we do a very comfortable, very luxurious retreat, where we don’t have to bear any hardships—a Vajrasattva retreat, preliminary practices or a deity retreat and so forth—but we especially do it with the self-cherishing thought, it doesn’t become a powerful purification or a powerful means to accumulate infinite merit, the quick path to enlightenment.
If, on the other hand, we use the diseases of this life or the problems we think are serious to destroy the self-cherishing thought, to eliminate the self-cherishing thought, it becomes an incredibly powerful practice, a quick way to develop bodhicitta and a quick way to achieve enlightenment. Even if we have all these life problems that we think are so serious, without the self-cherishing thought they make our life incredibly meaningful.
Even if we are experiencing death, the disease alone doesn’t make us be reborn in the lower realms and experience suffering for many eons—even if we have to go through the death, because at the moment we are not free from the death, we haven’t accomplished those paths which make us free from death. Without the self-cherishing thought even the untimely death that the disease causes becomes pleasant, doesn’t become terrifying. We have a pleasant, peaceful, happy death and that experience of death takes us to a fortunate rebirth, a better human rebirth where we can practice Dharma better or the pure realm of Buddha and so forth.
Which is the more harmful, cancer, AIDS or any of the 224 diseases, or our self-cherishing thought? The self-cherishing thought is. There’s no comparison. The harm of all those diseases is nothing compared to the harm of the self-cherishing thought.
Likewise when we compare all the weapons there are and our self-cherishing thought, the self-cherishing thought is much more harmful. There is no comparison to all the weapons outside, and to all the enemies, to all the diseases. Even the dangers of earthquakes, the dangers of fire, the dangers of water, the dangers of wind—cyclones, tornadoes—if we compare those outside dangers and the danger of the self-cherishing thought, there’s no comparison. All those dangers are nothing compared to the danger of the self-cherishing thought, how it is so harmful to ourselves and to all sentient beings.
Whatever we normally think of as harmful, such as poison, cannot compare. No matter how much poison there is outside, the harm from those poisons is nothing compared to the harm of the self-cherishing thought and the delusions—anger, ignorance, attachment. All those outside dangers, those harms, come from the mind, from our own mind, from the delusions, the self-cherishing thought, those things. That is also one reason.
THE PRELIMINARY PRACTICES
As there’s no time to mention the other part, the importance of bodhicitta, cherishing others, maybe I’ll explain it tomorrow morning from Do De Gyen, [Maitreya’s Ornament of Mahayana Sutras], the sutra text which contains all the unbelievable, inconceivable benefits of bodhicitta.
What makes every sentient being important and precious is this. Just as we think of ourselves as important and precious, all other sentient beings are equal. Their need to obtain happiness and be free from suffering is the same. Not only that, not only that, but by number other sentient beings are numberless, therefore others become the most important. The need for us to obtain happiness for them, to pacify their suffering, becomes extremely important, most important.
Each sentient being is even more precious than we ourselves are because all suffering comes from the I and all happiness comes from others. All the success, all the good things, come from others, from each sentient being, therefore each sentient being is more precious than we are, much more important, much more precious than we are.
The self-cherishing thought is the originator of infinite harm. All undesirable things come from, are dependent on, the I, the self-cherishing thought. All the sufferings come from the I and all happiness, all success, all good things, come from each sentient being. There will be more clarification in the other parts of the talks on bodhicitta.
Therefore, other sentient beings are objects to be forever cherished. Because of these reasons, in our life there’s nobody to cherish other than sentient beings. In our life there’s nobody to work for other than sentient beings. Other than this it’s empty. Empty. Empty life, empty work, no meaning. By cherishing sentient beings, we should do the work of body, speech and mind for the sentient beings.
Now, think like this. “What work should be done for sentient beings? What service should be done for sentient beings? What they want is happiness; what they do not want is suffering. The highest happiness is full enlightenment, the cessation of all the mistakes of the mind and the complete realizations. Therefore, I must lead them to full enlightenment and to do that I myself must achieve enlightenment. That depends on generating the path, and the means to succeed in all of this is by protecting my karma. For that reason I’m going to take the eight Mahayana precepts from now until tomorrow sunrise.”
So, please do three prostrations with the visualization of the lama who grants the precepts as the essence of the Buddha, in the aspect of the Buddha, surrounded by numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas.
Normally, it happens a lot that during the courses I explain the preliminary practices, such as the prostrations—the meditation that goes with the prostrations and the purpose of doing that, how the prostrations are part of the preliminary practices. They are a condition to accumulate extensive merit, one of the methods to accumulate extensive merit. They are the necessary condition for realizations, for changing of the mind, for the development of the mind, and generally to create the cause, merit, which is the cause of happiness.
To be able to understand these various preliminary practices, which have very deep meaning, explanation, all these various practices—mandala offerings, all the different prayers and so forth—depends on knowing the basic subject, the lamrim, the graduated path of the lower capable being, from the meditation on guru devotion, then the perfect human rebirth, its usefulness and the difficulty attaining it, then impermanence and death, the lower realms, karma, refuge, then [the graduated path of the middle capable being] what is samsara, all the true suffering and the true cause of suffering, then [the graduated path of the higher capable being] bodhicitta, how all sentient beings are so kind, so precious, how every happiness comes from them, by their kindness.
To know those preliminary practices, to really feel them from the heart, to feel the need, that depends on all these basic understandings, the understanding of the basic, common path, the three principal aspects of the path. By knowing these things, we can see the deep meaning of all these prayers, of those various preliminary practices, of reciting mantras or mandala offerings, prostrations, making offering and so forth, all those different practices.
Actually, by going over those subjects first, before explaining the preliminary practices, that is like studying the reason for doing the preliminary practices. The deeper we understand the whole of the actual path, the deeper the understanding of the preliminary practices we have and the deeper the feeling. We know that without eating food we will die. We know that this problem of hunger in our experience is unbearable. So, the need for food and eating food, the feeling for the need for the food and to eat, this comes very strongly from our own side.
It is not that all these practices have no meaning; they have very deep meaning and it depends on understanding those many other things. It is not like a meaningless custom that people just follow without meaning. It’s not like doing a practice to become the cause of the happiness of future lives, liberation and enlightenment doesn’t have any meaning for us. It’s not like that.
Even if we don’t understand well what Buddha, Dharma and Sangha means, even if we don’t have a clear idea, if there’s no clear, intellectual understanding of what karma is, what is to be purified, but there’s unmistaken faith that there are obscurations to be purified and that there’s the unmistaken object of refuge who has the power to free us from the lower realms’ suffering, from the whole, entire suffering of samsara. We do the practices on the basis of that understanding faith, that unmistaken faith.
Unmistaken faith means it’s correct. It’s correct as we have faith, it’s correct in the meaning. It’s correct in the reality because such an object exists. Therefore, even if we don’t have a clear, intellectual understanding of what it is, we can have faith that it’s correct, because the object exists. There are the obscurations, the negative karma, to be purified; there are the objects of refuge, the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, that have all the qualities. If we rely upon them they can guide us; they can protect us. Just like by relying on medicine, a doctor or medicine, they can help us recover. It’s like that example. If we don’t rely on them by understanding they can help us, they can’t help us. If we don’t go to them to receive their help, they can’t help us. It’s like that.
Notes
22 The last one is similarity in base. For instance, for an eye sense consciousness, both the principal consciousness and the mental factor are empowered by the eye sense organ. See Geshe Tashi Tsering’s Buddhist Psychology. [Return to text]
23 The five definitely ascertained mental factors are: aspiration, appreciation, recollection, concentration and intelligence; the five omnipresent mental factors are: contact, discernment, feeling, intention and attention; the eleven virtuous mental factors are: non-attachment, non-hatred, non-ignorance, faith, self-respect, consideration for others, enthusiasm, suppleness, conscientiousness, equanimity, nonviolence. For more on mind and mental factors see: Geshe Rabten’s The Mind and its Functions and Geshe Tashi Tsering’s Buddhist Psychology. [Return to text]
24 The four changeable mental factors are: sleep, regret, examination and analysis. [Return to text]
25 Ch. 8, v. 129. [Return to text]
26 Ch. 8, v. 130. [Return to text]
