B. THE DELUSIONS (Page 92)

I. THE SIX PRINCIPAL DELUSIONS

2. Greed (do chag: attached to a desirable object)

“Self-nature beauty” means that we see an object as beautiful based on the belief of self-existence and the greed that arises, in turn, on the basis of that.

The being with the controlled mind also sees beauty as we do but is not attached—we, however, are out of control, possessed by greed. We see the object as beautiful and problems arise from our greed—if there is no greed, there are no problems. In the same way, if there is no hatred, there are no problems from ugly objects. Therefore, renunciation of negative mind brings perfect peace, which doesn’t depend on objects. For the fully renounced mind there are no problems with any object. Although two people may be in one place, the being with the uncontrolled mind sees it as a hot, burning suffering place whereas the holy being with the well-controlled mind does not, and has no suffering or problems. For the Enlightened Being, objects that appear to the ordinary being as undelicious, filthy, and ugly become delicious, sweet, and beautiful. The experience of objects for the ordinary being includes so many sufferings and pleasures, but for the Enlightened Being there is not one tiny suffering, it is always the same. If we offer him even the most delicious nectar, which gives much pleasure, he experiences its taste and the taste of water as equal. All of the experiences of the Enlightened Being are in the nature of transcendental happiness, infinite happiness, and are never the experience of our view. For the holy being any ordinary place is seen as one with him, as a pure land, a completely purified realm, that which can also become the mandala without differentiation. The Enlightened Being always experiences the different objects, different foods, and different views that we experience in such unbalanced, unequal ways as beauty, with transcendental happiness. This is due only to mental change, complete purification, and having all realizations. He always sees in beauty, and there is no greed.

4. (d) Pride of my consciousness—for example, when we are angry, we feel that “I” am more important than anyone. We also feel that the body and the “I” are one, and that the five aggregates are “me.” We have a strong view of the self-existent “I,” that the body is “I,” or an entity. One destroys, the other subsides. We can feel the “I” pump up and down from the heart. There is a similar reaction when we feel fear, but it’s hard to remember all this since we are unconscious with our own experiences.

5. Doubt is usually based on one of two points, “it is” or “it is not.” For example, we may have doubt whether the “I” exists or not, whether it is permanent or not. Or we may think that maybe this is the path to liberation or maybe it isn’t. We think maybe or maybe not about anything. Being skeptical, the person doesn’t practice, and therefore doesn’t receive realizations. This is the greatest disturbance because it doesn’t allow us to follow the path to nirvana. Doubt stops us from creating good karma, thinking, “Is there?” or “Isn’t there?” all the time.

6. In meditation we should always check up on our delusions. For example we should think, “Do I have this belief or that belief?” and “Who am ‘I’?” The “I” we talk about here is just the relative name, the “I” we usually talk about, the “self-I,” the negative mind. The other “I” is purified away from this, cleaned of all negativity.

(a) As atoms of metal make up the bell, this life’s physical existence depends on the five skandhas.

(b) At death the mind involuntarily separates from body, but it doesn’t mean “I” cease. Life is the relationship between body and mind. The mind has to have a possessor, the person, so as ignorance ceases the “I” doesn’t cease—it cannot since the mind is continual. Even if we reach enlightenment, the mind is completely continual. Even if we reach enlightenment, completely purifying every single negative mind, the pure mind remains. Some think that the mind won’t continue after death, like a burnt out candle—that no physical body means no mind. This is a wrong conception.

II. THE TWENTY SECONDARY DELUSIONS (Page 93)

These arise from the six root delusions, and the twenty delusions are all mental, not physical. The term sem chung means a mind mainly analyzing the quality or essence of the object.” These twenty are different aspects of the six root delusions and there are fifty-one sem chung or secondary mental factors. We should recognize these different types of negative mind, checking while reading to see, “Do I have each one?”

8. Shame

We use “shame” in association with oneself, although we are never really alone as the enlightened beings are able to see all, and “shy” when we are associated with other people. Shame is very important in Dharma practice, and is based on fear, which is based on understanding. It may be positive or negative.

(i) For example, someone who doesn’t have shame may do funny things when alone since there’s nobody around, and is not ashamed of performing negative actions in the presence of enlightened beings. He is not concerned about creating bad karma and he has lack of fear of the suffering result. Being afraid of breaking vows is positive shame.

(ii) Negative shame increases the negative mind because it causes us only to care for the eight temporal desires, working for them shamelessly (i.e. without positive shame). For example, someone goes to a party and dresses in the best way, different from other people, so that others will notice and admire him or her. Such an action is done with negative shame for those desires, and the motive is for one’s own comfort and reputation, thinking, “If I’m not dressed well, people will think I’m this or that.” He or she feels shy of not dressing well because people will think the opposite of that which is desired. All this is negative shame.

We should feel shame in performing actions against the wishes of the enlightened beings and should check up if an act is the result of negative mind. If there is no shame, we always create negative karma. We must keep the mind conscious all the time because negative actions are usually created by the unconscious mind. If we have a negative thought and realize that it’s negative and that it can cause bad karma with a suffering result, this can decrease the power of the karma according to the strength of the thought and the strength of repentance. Also, the stronger the upset (shock) from the thought (or act), the less likely is it to recur. But if there is no deep understanding of the suffering result we will keep on doing it even though we feel it’s a bad thing. Continued meditation helps by keeping the mind conscious of negative karma and stopping evil actions, and also allows stronger repentance.

So, positive shame, which works to destroy greed, is completely opposite to samsaric (negative) shame, which works only for greed, and cares only for the temporal comfort. The happiness or unhappiness in any situation is only one’s mental conception. Usually it’s a result of negative shame, feeling shy about positive actions—for example for giving up desires in contrast to positive shame, which makes one shy of creating negative actions.

III. THE FOUR CHANGEABLE MENTAL ACTIONS (Page 95)

1. Sleep can be virtuous or non-virtuous—if we sleep having meditated on Guru Shakyamuni beforehand, with bodhicitta, the rest of the sleep is virtuous, following this impulse. But if we go to sleep with some kind of greed arising, our sleep becomes non-virtuous. Also, if we have sexual intercourse before sleep, or goes to sleep feeling angry with someone, it’s non-virtuous. Such negativities may recur during sleep as dreams, and continue upon awakening.

2. Negatively, this is repenting positive actions. For example, you attend the meditation course but cancel out the good karma of this good act by feeling sorry that you didn’t stay in Katmandu smoking hashish, eating good food, and listening to music.

4. Negatively, the object to which we are attached is assessed as good or bad based on the details. For a car, for example, we will think of the whitewall tires or the color. For a person we will think of their face, hair, skin color, and so forth. Positively, we check the details, of a flower for example, with respect to its impermanence and so on.

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C. THE WHEEL OF LIFE (Page 96)

(KHOR WA, CIRCLE)

This is an explanation of what we are experiencing and not something that is happening only to others. The drawing of the wheel of life explains the sufferings of the different realms of samsara. Here we meditate from cause to result. The creator of samsara and suffering is ignorance and each being’s suffering is created by each being’s experience, so we meditate from ignorance to death. Suffering is ignorance and cessation brings peace. Each samsaric rebirth has its twelve links but enlightenment severs them.

1. Ignorance

To get out of samsara we must destroy ignorance of absolute truth and ignorance of karma. Knowing the evolution of karma stops us from creating negative karma.

(b) The ignorant mind creating negative karma is ignorant of the absolute true nature, which causes the suffering of the three lower realms. Ignorance of karma leads to the creation of evil actions, the ten immoralities, which brings the different suffering, ignorant rebirths that lack the chance to practice or understand Dharma. In these rebirths, we continuously create more bad karma since we are still ignorant of the absolute true nature, and as still more negative karma is created we develop greater ignorance of the absolute true nature of ignorance. Without fully seeing the faults of ignorance, we only build more ignorance. Creating negative karma obscures the mind more and more and makes it harder and harder to see the absolute true nature, and makes us more and more ignorant of the absolute true nature. Therefore we create more and more negative karma. That is how ignorance is the principal cause of all suffering.

Therefore, the main method, the principal direct method to quickly get out of samsara is to realize the absolute true nature of reality. Therefore, we see how understanding shunyata quickly releases us from samsara and is so important. All suffering is rooted in the ignorance of the absolute true nature and as the understanding of shunyata is the complete opposite of this, it directly helps to remove ignorance. The person who understands the absolute true nature never creates bad karma, because no ignorance of the absolute true nature means no ignorance of karma. It is definite that such a person will not be reborn in the three lower realms of suffering.

Ignorance of the absolute true nature is like the poison that threatens life, and understanding of the absolute true nature is like an antidote to the poison. Not taking the antidote and just eating food doesn’t help lengthen the life, although neither can we live on the antidote alone without depending on food. So the effect of poison is like the effect of ignorance of the absolute true nature, creating good karma is like eating food, and understanding shunyata is like the antidote. Again: poison (ignorance), food (good karma), and antidote (understanding shunyata). Good karma helps but is not a direct method. The person who takes the antidote should know that food is the most important thing that supports life, so continuously taking the antidote and completely forgetting the food is a big mistake—the life can be neither long nor happy. The person who realizes the absolute true nature always sees the importance of following karma, that creating positive karma and not creating negative karma is the most important thing. The person not careful of karma who says, “I can see shunyata,” proves that he has no understanding of the absolute true nature at all. If he has carelessness in terms of karma it means that he has no realization of the absolute true nature, despite anything he says. The person who fully realizes the absolute true nature of person, mind, existence, and karma also has full belief and confidence in the evolution of karma at the same time, and therefore cares very much about creating positive karma and avoiding the creation of negative karma. For instance, the person who has realized the absolute truth of karma realizes that cause and effect (karma) is dependent, and has knowledge that the absolute truth of karma never betrays cause and effect.

Thinking that karma doesn’t exist is the wrong realization of the absolute true nature. This knowledge of shunyata is wrong. The right realization of shunyata sees definitely that karma exists and is dependent, and sees the relative truth of cause and effect clearly. Such realization of the absolute true nature seeing dependent cause and effect as more true definitely exists. The right view of shunyata is that the relative truth, karma, cause and effect, definitely exists—it sees the absolute true nature of karma. If we do not see this then our realization of shunyata is imperfect. And it’s the same thing—as the realization and understanding that dependent, causative karma is definite deepens, confidence greatly increases. We will develop full confidence as we see this more clearly, identifying its evolution as causative, understanding that positive karma brings a positive result and negative karma brings a negative result. This helps a great deal to develop the realization of the absolute true nature.

Just as a bird needs both wings to fly and can’t fly with only one, in the same way both realizations are so important to escape from suffering. We must have full confidence in the evolution of karma—in causative, dependent karma, and the realization of the absolute true nature. Without both we cannot escape from samsara. Both are very necessary—the understanding that the relative truth is dependent and existent, and the realization of its absolute true nature, the voidness of the absolute true nature of the relative truth. Therefore, as much as we can study the subject of karma, that much it will help us to realise the absolute true nature.

Understanding of the evolution of karma is very helpful for understanding shunyata. Why do these two help each other? By proving factual existence and how it is correlated with the object. For example, if the absolute true nature of the table (voidness) is the absolute true nature of the book (relative truth) and vice versa, then we cannot understand either. But the absolute true nature of each is interrelated. Therefore, receiving the wrong realization of shunyata or exposure to incorrect teachings, study, or meditation from the wrong person makes it is possible that we may negate karma, and see karma as non-existent. This is due to the wrong realization of the absolute true nature, the opposite of the absolute true nature. Therefore the person who sees that karma doesn’t exist no longer cares about karma and thus creates negative karma. That person is recognized by the great yogis as having not fully realized shunyata. That person finds the wrong nature, and believes that karma, the relative truth, doesn’t exist and so creates much bad karma such as heresy by saying that nothing exists—me, him, Buddhadharma. Believing that everything is non-existent, that there is no karma, no nirvana, and no samsara will cause him to create much bad karma, and that wrong realization will make him much more ignorant, which makes him create even more bad karma. Therefore it is important to always talk about karma, but it is not an easy subject; it helps in so many ways and it is always important to meditate on karma also.

Also, at this moment we are all here at Kopan, together, from different places, talking about a subject new for most of us, Dharma, that we’ve never heard about before in the earlier part of this life, or even in dreams. A subject that is opposite to before. There is something which has brought about this arrangement—our karma. Why do things happen like this without us having any idea of it before, not even the impulse, coming from the West? The reason is karma.

Without fully realizing the suffering of samsara, we cannot escape from it, because to do this we must have the fully renounced mind. To not get hurt by a fire we must recognize its nature—that it’s hot and that it burns—and in the same way we must recognize the nature of samsara. As we renounce touching fire, so we must renounce samsara. It is very useful to meditate on samsara both ways as shown, although these notes are a very condensed version. Meditation stops the arising of the wrong conception that samsaric happiness is true happiness.

2. Karmic Formation

(Du che means by gathering delusions; lä has to be a mental thing). Lä, or karma, is mental—it refers to the actions of body, speech, and mind. Actually actions of body and speech come from the mind and also affect the mind, leaving impressions upon it.

(a) Meritorious karma, variable or invariable, brings upper realm rebirth.

(i) Variable karma. For example a person has created karma to be both a dog and a pig. By taking a pig rebirth, although the person is reborn in the form of a pig, it is possible to experience the potential of the karma of a dog, because they are of the same “caste,” i.e., in animal form. It is also possible for human beings to complete two results by taking one form—this can happen when a person has created the karma to be two different human beings, to take two different human forms, and takes one, completing the ability of both. This is the opposite of invariable karma.

(ii) Invariable karma. It is possible for human and animals to experience this, but there are some stages where this result cannot happen, such as in the world of form. In the form realm there are different four different mental categories, four different stages, that are attained through craving and, originally, samadhi meditation. This means that one receives these different stages through craving the rapturous ecstasy of samadhi. If one creates the karma to experience the third stage, for example, that potential cannot be finished in the second.

(b) Demeritorious karma brings lower rebirth, and also causes suffering in the upper realms.

(c) Neutral karma doesn’t bring results such as suffering and happiness. However, you should check up whether a neutral feeling is the result of neutral action or not.

3. Mind has the ability to be conscious but as it travels around the six realms it is not necessarily so. Karmic impressions limit consciousness, and result in the five skandhas or aggregates—one that is form and four that are not.

The relationship between ignorance and the actions of body, speech, and mind is that the former creates the latter. When action is created it leaves an impression on the consciousness, like planting seed in a field. Ignorance causes action, which in turn affects the consciousness and leaves a karmic impression. If there were no consciousness then all the rest could not happen—the results, for example, or the experience of different things in different lives. Just as the monkey jumps from tree to tree, so consciousness goes from life to life. There is consciousness that is the result and consciousness that is the cause.

4. Name and Form (Page 97)

A house depends on walls and a roof—many things are fixed, and it’s a house. If it doesn’t have one of the walls it isn’t a house. In the same way, without the five skandhas a person can’t exist, and form cannot come into being without previous karma. The father and mother produce the form, which is the vehicle for the baby’s mind, in the womb.

Pung po (aggregate) means “group,” or something that depends on a group. For example, consciousness depends on a group or continuity, just as it does on time. If it is form, each atom depends on the group or the parts. Skandha means group or aggregates.

5. Six Sense Organs

The organ is the pure ability, for example, of the sense of tongue, and where the tongue is situated. It is the same with body, ear, eye, nose, and consciousness. The sense becomes momentarily invisible after death and does not continue. Consciousness continues. According to the rebirth, it continues and enjoys the six different objects. When the pure ability, the very calm, essential ability of the body degenerates, the body loses it. It is the same, for example, with the eye—that which is inside the eyeball is the pure ability, the very subtle, essential ability, the physical ability. When this essential ability, very subtle, calm ability becomes loose, when it is endangered, simultaneously all the senses situated on it become loose because this ability is the vehicle. When it is disturbed so is the sense, because it is the vehicle of the sense. For example, how does eating things affect the mind and cause the mind to determine whether it is a healthy or a dangerous thing, for instance? It affects the pure, calm, essential ability. By affecting the eye, it indirectly affects the sense. Also, at death time why are there no feelings? Because the base, the vehicle, of the sense is absorbed, so the sense is also absorbed. Why is it that when some dangerous things happen to the physical form it has an effect on the senses, and they cannot be used? Because the sense base is damaged, through disease, for example. That doesn’t mean that the sense is matter or a physical thing. Sense is sentiment.

Also, when we concentrate on one part of the body we have no feeling of the other parts; we become unconscious, not understanding the other parts of the body. This is due to the fact that where the mind concentrates, the vehicle of the mind, the wind, also concentrates, and as a result we are not conscious of other parts of the body. Usually, whenever the eye looks at an object it can see it, but when we pay more attention to sound, even though the eye is looking at the object it is not conscious of it. Because the mind is paying attention to and is more concentrated on the sound, through the nerves of the ear, it is the same thing—the energy also follows it. It is not as strongly existent in the nerves of the eyes at this time; therefore, the sense of eye doesn’t see the object when the mind pays attention to sound. Sometimes, also, we don’t know that we feel hungry, and then someone also talks about food and our stomachs feel hungry. Other sufferings are also like this—becoming more apparent when the mind pays more attention to it. So, whatever the sense, if the person is looking at a flower, for example, then as the mind pays attention to that through the nerves of the eyes, wind or energy also comes and the person can tell the color and so forth, and discriminate the flower like this.

6. Contact

This is, for example, the mind thinking of permanent or impermanent things, or of the absolute true nature. There are many existing things that are the object of the mind.

7. Feelings

The feeling of equilibrium is the same as the feeling of indifference. With the equilibrium meditation, when there is the feeling of equilibrium for all sentient beings, there is a neutral feeling for all sentient beings. By meditating on the object of all sentient beings, a neutral feeling, an equal feeling, arises. But when we have the conception of friend and enemy there is a different feeling—pleasure, happiness, and attachment, and suffering, dislike, and hatred.

Contact brings feeling so that all negative minds arise. If we don’t use the methods and follow their practice, as suffering, happiness, and so forth arise, hatred and greed also arise, building negative mind. Therefore we should always check up our feeling with an object. Why? Because of thinking that there is self-existent suffering or self-existent happiness due to an object. For instance, when we see a person who has a nice shape, our minds become attached and we enjoy looking at it, find pleasure in it, and experience temporal samsaric happiness. This feeling arises from contact of the object of the sense of eye with the eye. But my eye sense is not one with his body and his body is not one or interrelated with my organ sense; he is there and I am here.

However, generally, contact is a mental conception. There is no actual contact in my eye or on his body, it cannot be found on any part of his body or my eye—it is a conception of mind, it is made into belief by mind. Just his being close, in the view of my eye, is believed to be contact. This is just a mere mental conception, belief. It’s the same thing with delicious food—contact is not in the food or the tongue. As it gets closer and touches the tongue, there is the mental conception of contact. Feeling happiness upon seeing the physical body is also merely mental conception. This pleasure is not on his body, arising only in dependence on him, existing only from him, the object. This pleasure does not only depend on that person, arising from his side alone. The attachment sees the object as beautiful on the basis of self-experience, sees it in the nature of beauty, then defines this as receiving pleasure. This it is merely our own conception or belief. This pleasure is mere conception, belief, our own creation—the mere creation of our own mind. Seeing the person in beauty is merely the conception of the person looking at the other, the conception of his mind. As the happy feeling is a mere mental belief, the contact and the beauty are also mental belief, conception.

Why is feeling pleasure by looking at a person mere mental belief? If it only depended on arising from the person’s side, when we get angry with or tired of that person it shouldn’t happen that one no longer sees the person in beauty and no longer gets pleasure from seeing him. Although the person still looks the same and has a similar shape, due to our negative minds of pride, anger, and jealousy, we see the person as an undesirable object. Our feelings have changed yet this change does not depend on the shape of the object changing. This can happen in two minutes—that pleasure becomes anger, happiness becomes suffering. That’s why pleasure defined through contact with such a person is his mere belief, mental conception, and the creation of his own mind, just as contact and seeing a person in beauty is also only a mental creation. Therefore, suffering is only our own creation, our own belief.

Contact is not on the eye or the object, it is called “contact” by the mind. Being near the object, the object being in the view of the eye, is called contact.

The definition of pleasure is mere mental conception—that feeling is the creation of the mind. Besides this being the person’s belief, the pleasure derived from the contact of the object is also a mere mental conception. The object, thing or person, being closer to our view is defined as a meeting, and also seeing the object in beauty is a mere mental conception. There is no such beauty that exists from the object’s side. We usually believe that the beauty comes from the object’s side and exists as a self-entity. In fact, even if we seek the beauty as it is seen, we cannot find it or point to it. If that beauty that we see in our view were true, that beauty should be something that exists only from the object’s side, not depending on the viewer. That beauty should be one with the object. For example, if we are considering a person’s body a beautiful person, every atom of the body should be seen in beauty—the nose, bones, and flesh should be seen in beauty. But they are not seen in beauty. When we dissect the body into small pieces it is not found to have beauty in each part. So beauty is not one with the body, or any other object, and every single atom is not beautiful—not even one is beautiful—no cells of the body, inside or out, are beautiful. Therefore, like this, we can’t find beauty on the object. Thus, if even the parts are not beautiful, the whole group together cannot be, and there is no such beauty existing only from the object’s side. Even the beauty made by parts of the body grouped together doesn’t exist only from the object’s side. It has to depend on the person looking at it. Without depending on the person looking at small pieces of the body grouped together, beauty cannot exist. Either the beauty should exist without depending on the group or it should be one with it. But without depending on that body the beauty can’t be found. It never exists only from the object’s side.

How does that beauty exist for me? It’s only my mental conception. I conceive it as beautiful. That such aggregated part of the body I define as beautiful, my mind conceives as beautiful. My mind calls him beautiful looking. I call him in such a way, I give him a name, created by my mind. The beauty I define is only my mental creation, is only my name, called so by mind. So, now I can see this beauty created by my mind—I create something and I am attached to it; I create and I believe.

Our belief in beauty is only something created by ourselves. We are attached to the beauty that we create with our own mind, attached to a mental conception—this is senseless. We are attached to our own creation, to our own mental projections and reflections. The reason that we are strongly attached, one reason, speaking in the true way, is that it is our own mental creation. But we don’t recognize our own mental creation. Therefore, problems always arise between subject and object; attachment brings problems. Because of the fundamentally wrong conception that beauty exists only from the person’s side without depending on my mental creation at all, that beauty exists by itself no matter what it is called by my mind—as a self-entity, as self-existent. Therefore, because of that wrong conception, that beauty arises from the object, and then attachment arises also.

If we are conscious that it is our own mind’s mental creation that comes from our own side, attachment does not arise. If we think, we can see that the mind attached to any title is always based on the wrong conception that the title is a concrete one, solid, and a self-entity. Because of this wrong conception of titles—king, minister, judge, doctor, lawyer, and so on—the mind is attached to the title, as if it is a self-entity, existing by itself. Therefore, generally speaking, for that reason the mind is attached to the solidly appearing title. We spend much time to get that name, study hard, incur many expenses, and maybe in the end we won’t even get that name. And even though we may receive the certificate, paper, or job, where is the title we have received? After all this time and energy spent, this title that we received is completely opposite to the title we have been looking it.

The actual title—what it is irrelevant—sweeper, king, president, and so on—is merely words, only names, which is only a creation of mind. That doesn’t mean that the mind and body of the person called “president” become one with president. And now it is clear how it is opposite to what we have been expecting, spending much time and energy, much negative mind, and much attachment to bring it about. The way that we see the title is as a self-entity and not as a creation of mind; it is as a title that exists by itself, not dependent on name, not dependent on mind creating it, calling it, but as something solid and concrete. This is the opposite of the real title, which doesn’t exist in that way but in the opposite way.

The man receiving the title “president” is also only a mere name, a mental conception. It is the same thing with beauty. If beauty existed only from the object’s side without depending on the mind of the person looking, then the object should be seen as beautiful to everyone. But what I see as beautiful is not seen as beautiful by all other beings. It is seen in different ways by different people. Even when a person or object is recognized as a most beautiful thing by one, others see it as ugly, and do not like it. Many people see it in different ways and give it different names, such as beautiful, ugly, and so forth. So is that object ugly and beautiful all together?

All living beings see things differently and this proves that such names are merely mental conceptions of the viewer, created by the person looking, and are only his way of viewing it. He is attached to his own mental creation. Good or bad depends on the person. The whole reason is this—as it is only a mental creation, a name, there is no reason to be attached to that beauty, that contact, as it is only our own mental creation.

The reason for saying all these details is only to show the wrong conceptions and faults of attachment clearly.

8. Craving (Page 98)

A person drinks, becomes drunk, and fights for no real reason. He knows this happens as it has happened many times before. Even non-drinkers fight, drunk with ignorance. People bring wine to a festival—no wine, no festival.

At the end of one life the person craves a human body, leaving this impression. But he may have to live the next life as an animal, a dog, for example. At the time of his death as a dog, the impression for the human rebirth causes craving for a human rebirth to arise, and so he may be reborn human again.

Each of the three kinds of craving causes suffering.

9. Grasping

The mind remembers the enjoyment of a past taste and is attached to it, wanting more. This is grasping.

c) The self-I concept is the concept of the independent “I,” an “I” free from the skandhas. This cannot be. “I” has to depend on body and mind, or on the mind alone. We make two divisions, body and mind, without talking of the problem of the five skandhas. Because of these two, “I” exist. But “I” cannot exist without my mind and it is not mind only, either. This is the “I” that is beginningless. Until one is enlightened there is always some body; at enlightenment we become the pure “I.”

“Self-existent I” means an “I” not dependent on the aggregates of body and mind. “Life” is the relationship between body and mind and when these separate, uncontrolled death occurs. The “I” goes on and experiences death, followed by rebirth, under the control of delusion and karma. As long as mind exists there is “I,” and if mind were to cease so would “I.” But “I” can die because if “I” is body and mind together, and the body dies when the body and mind separate at death, then this “I” dies too. The “I” does not cease, it just has this experience of death as it has many other experiences such as sleep, different physical forms, and so forth.

Each of the four kinds of grasping causes suffering.

10. Becoming

Craving, grasping, and becoming arise just before the result. We may have to wait eons before a particular group arises at death, and we may have to work off stronger karmas first. For example, humans crave human rebirth but may have to take rebirth in other realms before this is possible. The dying human creates craving, grasping, and becoming karmas for a human rebirth. But if he has great negative karma, these three impressions are delayed until just before the next human rebirth. In the meantime he may have to spend eons in the narak, yidak, and animal realms before these impressions arise to be followed by the next human rebirth. Grasping fertilizes the becoming link of the result and makes it stronger.

Alternatively, a person may be attached to peacocks, for instance, and wish he were a peacock, thereby planting the seed for rebirth as a peacock in a future lifetime. At the time of death the impression left by the ignorance wanting to become a peacock gets stronger due to karma. As it becomes stronger due to craving and grasping at the time of death, so the person is ready to become a peacock.

II. Rebirth

Past lives leave impressions on the consciousness as a result of the control of delusion and karma, resulting in the aggregates (skandhas) for that physical body. The impression, or ability, is like a seed and is made stronger by craving and grasping at death, just as elements such as water, heat, and so forth make the plant seed stronger and give it greater potential. The seed starting to sprout is equivalent to becoming.

In past times humans have also been born from eggs and from heat. Many animals are born from heat. Humans can also take spontaneous rebirth, as can pretas. The rebirths in the sura, asura, and narak realms are spontaneous.

FUTURE KARMIC RESULTS (Page 99)

Consider the person who spends his life killing animals, such as the hunter, butcher, or soldier. Even though he looks rich, like he is not suffering and is enjoying himself, it is definite that he will experience the result of his bad karma in the future as long as he doesn’t try to stop the result before it arises, doesn’t follow the path, and doesn’t purify. If he doesn’t try to purify himself, even the enlightened being cannot prevent his suffering, even if it has to be experienced for thousands of great eons. This is because the power of the sentient beings’ karma and the power of the enlightened beings are equal. Karma is very strong, so each person has to make his own effort—it can never be cut off by God. Unless this person does so himself he will have to experience many horrible results.

It is definite that a being that creates so much negative karma yet seems to be enjoying his work does this for only a few years, and it is definite that in the future his suffering will be greater than his happiness. There is nothing to trust in the aspect of someone creating so much negative karma yet enjoying his work—we cannot think that because of this there is no karma. It’s a big mistake to do so. This is a wrong conception, a conception that does not understand the evolution of karma, that does not understand Dharma, and a conception that can cheat someone out of creating positive actions and cause that person to be negatively influenced by a negative person, destroying his chance of happiness, wasting this and many other future lives.

We may create much good karma in early life, purify the mind a great deal, and then follow negative influences so that it becomes obscured again. We cannot trust such a negative yet enjoyable life, it is so short—we should not think that there is no karma or no suffering result just because the temporal life is happy despite such negative actions. The present enjoyment is the good result, but only for a few months or years—even one hundred years is nothing, because it is definite that after this life we won’t enjoy life due to having created heavy negative karma.

Nagarjuna’s quotation (Page 99) gives a complete idea of the evolution of karma and is very useful to know.

“Two deluded actions” refer to karmic formation and becoming.
“ Three deluded causes” refer to ignorance, craving, and grasping.
“ Seven uncontrolled results” refer to consciousness, name and form, the six sense bases, contact, feeling, rebirth, old age, and death.

The twelve links are involved in each samsaric rebirth. At the present moment we are in the result, the twelve links of this human life. What has finished for this life? Three causes: ignorance, craving, grasping, and two actions: karmic formation and becoming. Now we are in the seven results, on the way to completion. What still has to happen? Death—we are waiting. When this has occurred our work has finished, one set of twelve links will be over.

Each samsaric being is in the circle of these twelve links. This can be finished in two or three consecutive lives, but not in one life, or it can be finished over a longer period of time, for example there can be a great eon between cause and result. We have already created so many horrible negative karmas many long eons ago, yet have not experienced their results.

How can the twelve links be completed in two lives? (Page 99)

(a) In my earlier life I created the karma to be reborn a monkey in a future life, but for the rest of the lifetime I live purely, in precepts, purifying, decreasing attachment, and creating much good karma. This karma is stronger than the monkey karma at the time of death since I desire to be reborn in the upper realms. My ignorance leaves an impression on the consciousness—the seed to be a human being as I desired, and for which I created much good karma. Each time as I desired this, this impression became stronger and stronger. At death there is craving for the human body and grasping in the mind to again take a human rebirth. The grasping makes the seed of the becoming human stronger. Now two actions have been completed in this life, and three causes also: ignorance created karmic formation by creating good karma and left impressions on the consciousness, and craving, grasping, and becoming finish at death time. Now there are seven results left.

(b) Those seven finish in the second future life, because the seed, the becoming link of the human life, becomes stronger at death and makes me take the human rebirth right after the intermediate stage, without a narak rebirth or one of another shape. This is how the twelve links of the future human life are completed.

c) But now there is still the karma to be reborn a monkey, created in the previous life (a) through ignorance causing negative karma, which left an impression on the consciousness. One cause, ignorance, and one action, negative karma, were completed in that life. The other action, becoming, and the two other causes, craving and grasping, are completed in the second life (b) unless in that life I create heavier, more habitual karma than the monkey karma. If the monkey karma is heavier than any other karma, then at death (b) the craving, grasping, and becoming to be a monkey make this seed very strong and so in the third life I take rebirth as a monkey and complete the seven results of then.

Between completing ignorance and karmic formation and craving, grasping, becoming, and the seven results there may be many eons. In many previous lives our ignorance caused many negative karmic formations, but we still have not experienced the craving, grasping, and becoming related to them. Of course in one life, even in one day, a person makes much preparation for the narak, preta, and animal realms by creating so many different kinds of negative karma. Our ignorance creates so many karmic formations in this life, infinitely more demeritorious then meritorious. For each one there is a different twelve links—all kinds of animal rebirths and so forth, and also some from good karma, the twelve links that bring upper realm rebirth. We create many hundreds in each life and all have to be completed in the future if not purified.

Our lives are really much more imprisoned than the jails we recognize—there is no way to get out of these many other sets of the twelve links, to be free. We have started so many in this life. Each time we create the twelve links we are caught in the chain. We start by ignorance and we catch ourselves—like fish in a net we catch ourselves. The fish have to end up as a person’s food, and so each set of the twelve links started has to be experienced as each of these uncontrolled sufferings, as fish in a net, out of control. So our life is worse than a material prison—that kind of prison is like being in a house, but samsara is a real prison, a karmic prison. It has more to do with the mind, and so is very difficult. The karmic prison is created by mind, and so has to be cut off by mind. At least in a material prison we can still practice Dharma, we can still meditate, we can teach Dharma to other people. But in the samsaric prison of the lower realms, we can’t even have samsaric enjoyments.

Why is a person caught in an ordinary prison? Because his mind and body are in the real prison of the result of the human twelve links—he is in the ordinary prison because his mind and body are in the actual prison of the result of the twelve links that were started in a previous life, caught between birth and death. Even in this lifetime he created so many negative karmas for lower rebirths, as well as some positive karmas for upper rebirths. He started so many sets of the twelve links. He is really caught in so many other different prisons of which he has not yet experienced the results. Because his mind and body are not completely out of those actual prisons created by ignorance, he has no choice but to suffer in the ordinary prison. If he were out of the twelve links he wouldn’t have the suffering body that others could imprison and torture, or the suffering mind. Therefore, the work of getting out of the actual prison created by ignorance is more important than the work of getting out of the ordinary prison.

Anyway, it doesn’t matter.

Finishing the Human Twelve Links in Two or Three Lifetimes (Page 99)

(a) Ignorance creates karmic formations, leaving impressions on the consciousness that cause another human rebirth. Craving arises at or before death, since we like to be reborn human—there is especially strong craving at death time, causing grasping which makes the ability (becoming) for human rebirth stronger.

(b) Human consciousness, name and form, the six sense organs, contact, and feeling arise in the womb. Then there is rebirth, and old age, sickness and death. Old age is not definite, as we can die young. If not completed in this second life,

(c) Maybe completed in this third life if again born human.

Summary:
(a) Ignorance, karmic formation.
(b) This life not necessarily human, at death craving grasping and becoming for human body arise.
(c) Seven results completed.

THE THREE UPPER REALMS OF SUFFERING (Page 101)

1. HUMAN

Actually, ignorance itself is the cause of suffering, so any being that has no realization of the absolute true nature doesn’t recognize his own mind, who he himself is. Everyone’s life is in samsaric evolution, from rebirth to death we experience the eight sufferings, we are under the control of old age and death, not knowing where to go or how to control the time of death, not having the power to take a better way at the time of death, suffering from not finding beautiful objects. Therefore, everyone’s life is involved in suffering. A person can be a beggar or a rich man and both are in the prison of the twelve links and the evolution of the eight sufferings. Some people think that suffering only means lacking material things—usually ordinary people think suffering is like that. But suffering beings have their minds in the twelve links, their minds in the eight sufferings, their minds in problems. Those who think that suffering is only being materially poor limit suffering to the material conditions and don’t have the understanding of the actual meaning of suffering. The ordinary person’s conception of suffering is if one is rich or if one is poor there is suffering. But this is not the actual meaning of suffering—the actual meaning of suffering is ignorance, negative mind, and not understanding. Some people say, “I have materials, I have everything—many relatives, friends, wife, husband, children, a beautiful garden, and an apartment. I’m okay. I have no suffering, why should I practice Dharma, I don’t need Dharma.” Those who don’t understand suffering think it’s a question of being rich or poor, which is a big mistake. They think Dharma is something necessary only for poor people or for those whose minds are crazy.

If materials brought satisfaction without depending on Dharma, the inner method of mind control, then there would be no need to follow Dharma or for it to exist. If satisfaction depended on the collection of materials and the minds of those people who have these things are living in dissatisfaction, that is a problem. This keeps them always busy, worried—their minds are suffering, dissatisfied, tied in the twelve links, life has to go around and around. Their lives are under the control of the twelve links, begun by ignorance—so their lives are suffering and under the control of the eight sufferings—they have no control of rebirth and death, no idea where the mind will go, and no idea of what to do at death time. That means that their lives are suffering and the person who thinks like this is cheating himself, deceiving himself. How is that life suffering? It is already caught in the prison of the twelve links, is on the way to completing the present twelve links of human life. Each second is on the way to the end of the twelve links, to death. Before completing this result, this person is already caught in so many other twelve links, the mind caught is inside. Already this person’s life is hooked for another life of suffering, or many other lives. Without even finishing the result of the human twelve links, on the way to death he has already created many hundreds of sets of the twelve links, ignorance causing karmic formation that bring many other sets of the twelve links. Just as the fish in the net waits to be finished by the person—cut, cooked, eaten, and so forth—so we wait.

Also, those who think their lives are perfect, not in suffering, are already caught in so many hundreds of other sets of the twelve links, ready to experience those many other sufferings in future lifetimes. Thinking like this, we recognize ourselves more and more clearly, and so get more and more upset as we recognize our own mind. Before this we felt happy and comfortable but that is a great mistake. It’s like seeing a sort of a mirage of a river—when we look at the sand that reflects the sun, appearing to be running water, we are happy because we desire to bathe in it and run to it. But this is an exhausting thing because there’s no river there, there is nothing there. We only think we are happy.

2. ASURA

The being in this realm is like a man who is very guilty, who does very unusual things, very criminal, beyond the usual range of human action. As this kind of person is not recognized as a man, is thought to be beyond usual human behavior and recognized as unusual, just like that, so is the asura a very cruel god, having much avarice, always fighting a great deal. He is deported from the sura realms as the most guilty person is expelled from a society. Due to his karma he is so ignorant, his mind greatly obscured, usually very jealous and avaricious.

Asura beings come from nearby, from a place situated near the shore of the ocean of Mt. Meru. From there they come up to fight the sura beings. As the teachings degenerate on earth, people become more evil, create more negative actions, and if the asuras fight at such times, the evil spirits defeat the good.

3. SURA

(a) Usually the bodies of these samsaric gods and goddesses emanate light, sweet smells, not dirty smells, and beauty. The gods are always surrounded by many hundreds of goddesses, always enjoying themselves greatly. At their time of death this changes completely.

(i) The body smells very dirty and not even the closest relatives approach them.
(ii) Flowers put on the body and around the neck become old and die.
(iii) The body gets dust all over it.
(iv) They experience great worry as karmically they see clearly that they will be reborn in the narak realms.
(v) While the whole thing changes they become very ugly, no one looks after them, the beautiful light fades, the goddesses desert them. They feel very lonely and suffer much.

(b) The sura beings are under the control of other gods who have more possessions.
(c) Those with little power and few possessions get deported. They are always fighting, and if any part of the body is cut it grows again. This is their karmic creation. If the net is cut they die.

4. GODS OF THE FORM AND FORMLESS REALMS

A being takes rebirth in the world of form as a result of getting tired and bored of enjoying the objects of the five senses (which is only the partially renounced mind) and through being attached to the rapturous ecstasy that their practice of samadhi meditation brings. From here, a being can also be born in the world of formlessness. As a result of getting tired of samsaric pleasure and having a kind of renunciation for its pleasure, while still feeling indifference, not happiness or suffering, a being takes rebirth in the world of formlessness, and from rebirth to death remains completely unconscious with no cognition, and becomes invisible.

In the world of form there are seventeen categories, and in the formless world there are four categories. The four categories of the formless realm are:

(i) Limitless sky—thinking the whole of existence, whether matter or not, is as emptiness, like the sky or empty space. Even after that, concentrating the mind more on this, one thinks only
(ii) Limitless consciousness. Then thinking only
(iii) Nothingness. Then
(iv) The Summit of Samsara.

Whenever a being is born in samsara it is always in the twelve links, suffering the eight different sufferings, and those of all the different realms. We must not be attached to any samsaric rebirth, even the human rebirth. The principal thing to do is to get out of samsara altogether, but if we can’t get out this lifetime, we should take a human life next time, as a bridge to escape. As after one crosses a river there is no further need of the bridge, so after one is out of samsara there is no need for a human rebirth.

Not taking enjoyment from samsaric pleasures or possessions is the result of understanding samsaric suffering and is the purpose of meditating on samsaric suffering. If we don’t meditate, we always have attachment to rebirth in those realms—for example, to rebirth as a rich human being. But one cannot always be a human being actually—sometimes we are up, sometimes down.

As long as we have negative mind we suffer. Without seeing samsara as a fire we cannot renounce attachment, and then it is impossible to get out of samsara.

THE MAHAYANA EQUILIBRIUM MEDITATION (Page 103)

This meditation is fundamental to all the Mahayana meditations and to tantric meditation. It is extremely useful and is used by those who have great psychic powers, their chakras open, who can fly, make footprints on stone, turn fire to water, make prophesies, and so forth. But this meditation is regarded as more useful than these powers, which can be acquired without the realizations of this meditation on the absolute truth of the equality between oneself and other beings. This meditation brings realization of the equality of all sentient beings—oneself, friend, enemy, stranger, animal, insect, and so forth. Those who acquire psychic powers without this realization are not inner beings, and have no realizations of the evolution of samsara, karma, and so forth. Powers thus acquired cannot cut suffering, cannot cut samsara. There, outer beings don’t have inner peace.

The equilibrium meditation is especially useful for stopping attachment and anger. It is a meditation that makes equalizes oneself and all sentient beings by cultivating the mind not having attachment towards some and anger towards others. When this equilibrium is realized, the feeling of equality follows intuitively. If this is not felt then the meditation has not been realized.

We must stop discrimination—doing so releases the mind from so many problems with family, friends, and enemies, and brings peace. The achievement of psychic powers without realizations does not bring peace, release from samsara, realization of absolute truth, fully renounced mind, or lack of attachment and anger. This meditation is the best way to bring peace to the world. The discriminating, complicated, partial expectant mind is the exact opposite of that which this meditation brings and is the cause of all problems in the world—in families, in societies, and in countries.

So this meditation is very useful. Each time we do it the mind gets closer and closer to the subject, becoming more and more familiar with it. Little by little the mind comes into equilibrium from its unsubdued state. As it does so, the actions of greed and anger arise less and less often, since the negative mind responsible for them decreases. Also, as discrimination decreases, the mind doesn’t create so many problems for other people—discrimination causes us to engage in negative actions towards family, friends, and all sentient beings—so all are helped by subduing the mind. We create less negative karma and so do those with whom we come into contact. All sentient beings become equal, and not by means of material possessions as in external political attempts at peace, but by our mind. They become equal to our view, without depending on their actions towards us, such as harming, helping, or non-action, as assessed by worldly thought. Such limited mind only thinks of the present actions and can’t see the infinite previous lives, where all have been all things. Hence the worldly limited mind, which seems logical to itself, can never see all sentient beings as equal. A mind in equilibrium cannot be betrayed by friend, enemy, and so forth, as it sees all of them as equal. Such is a strong mind, unshakeable, a mind not complicated by attachment, anger, or ignorance, a mind without confusion. This mind always generates happiness and brings peace to other people. Therefore this mind stops others from creating bad karma—the enemy no longer reacts with anger, the friend is no longer attached.

Thus the principal cause of not seeing people in equilibrium is the non-equilibrium mind. The mind of equilibrium sees all sentient beings in equality, and is the only way to bring peace to all, which cannot be done by trying to share possessions, wealth, land, and so on.

Guru Shakyamuni said, “Anything growing on this earth, any flowers, fruit-bearing trees, forests, or ayurvedic plants, is due to the lake called Matu, and that lake depends on its possessor, the nagas. Therefore whatever grows from the earth depends on those nagas. In the same way, every single past and each future happiness, be it samsaric or non-samsaric, of each being, and all realizations including enlightenment—all, from the tiniest samsaric pleasure such as a cooling breeze upwards—arises from bodhicitta, and without it cannot exist. Even the happiness of animals, insects, and so forth cannot exist and is impossible without bodhicitta.”

How does every samsaric and other type of happiness result from bodhicitta? Every single happiness of all our past lives, every present happiness, even today’s, and all future happiness up to enlightenment arises due to the power of bodhicitta. Therefore, bodhicitta is the most important thing, more important than this body or this life. Through bodhicitta we can have the best, most perfect, most meaningful life.

Why is bodhicitta more important than this life or body? Because it can never cause even a tiny suffering, in contrast to the body, which has been the fundamental base for suffering and its main cause. No matter how much we trust bodhicitta it can never betray us. But the body can cheat and bring many problems. Being attached to this body can cause great problems with living beings and non-living things. Every problem arising from this body is due to its very existence, but bodhicitta can never cause suffering.

This body can cheat, make us think as if we will always have it and it will always help us. Yet no matter how much care we take of it, it will leave us in time—even if we try to keep it happy, away from suffering, no matter. It doesn’t work as we usually see it, that’s how it cheats. It creates problems such as those of the family, of making children—all that suffering that we do not desire. We do not have control and after a time it cheats us. But no matter how much we work for, trust, and take care of bodhicitta it never betrays, not even for a tiny second; this is not in its nature. Just having life is not enough to stop suffering and always enjoy happiness—this doesn’t stop suffering. But bodhicitta can cut off suffering, so therefore bodhicitta is more important than life. It can cut off suffering and stop the need for the body.

People in a particular country worry that their country will lose its power and that they will lose their possessions, land, and so on. They give up their life or put it in danger to fight other countries so that they will not lose the possessions and power that they have. This is because they see these things as the source of their reputation and pleasure, as more important than life. This is complicated because we don’t know if they die to take care of their life or their possessions. Their main talk is that they want to take care of their life, so they give it up to take care of the possessions. This works opposite to the intention in fact. It is a strange action. They think power and land are the fundamental source of pleasure, giving happiness. I’m not complaining, just explaining—like telling you that the fire is hot, that ice is cold, but not complaining about fire and ice. This ordinary example shows the meaning of the ordinary example itself, and also that of bodhicitta, but it doesn’t mean we should practice the ordinary example. Those who end their lives through this kind of action have nothing to do with land, possession, and power—they are out of chance, they die for the enjoyments of the temporal life.

Bodhicitta is the fundamental source of our past, present, and future happiness and therefore is infinitely more important than material powers and possessions. Even if there is material enjoyment, it exists only for one life or even less, and can cause problems. But the help of bodhicitta is eternal—it has beginning and it results in everlasting happiness that is one with eternal mind, so its benefits are eternal and continual for us. Therefore, when we think of the infinite benefits of bodhicitta and compare them to the ordinary example, the latter looks so silly, like giving up our life for candy. That’s why bodhicitta is more important than life. This practice is very worthwhile.

Anyway, it doesn’t matter.

This well-controlled mind of bodhicitta is attained on the basis of the fundamental achievement of the equilibrium meditation, and the achievement of this depends on practice.

Visualize a friend, an enemy (animal or human), a stranger, and all sentient beings. Remember that the friend was the enemy and stranger in many previous lives an exactly equal number of times—it is not possible that he was one was more than the other. Since friend, enemy, and stranger are seen as equal, we should have equal feelings towards them. Then we should think why, in which way, do I get angry most, what bothers me most? For example, if we are attached to hearing nice things, we should visualize someone saying bad things. If we don’t have any enemies, we can do this with anything that bothers us. At the same time we should check to see if there is a negative mind arising.

Sometimes if we think how someone is harming us, the more we think of it, the more angry we get. That mind of dislike comes to see that person as ugly, an undesirable object, and we can now use him to compare with the friend and stranger and to check the different feelings. By going through the twenty reasons (page 103-107) we will feel the same about them.

Then think of our parents nearby, they are also equal. Then think that all sentient beings are also equal, they were the enemy, friend, stranger, parents, and so forth in past lives the same number of times. We should think, “There is no being that I cling to more or detest more.” We should feel neutral, the mind not clinging, not stuck to friend. This trouble becomes loosened, relaxed, so the mind isn’t tight. Also, we should have no anger, but feel detached, and equal.

After each of the twenty reasons we should think, “Therefore there is no reason to be attached to the friend or to hate the enemy.” This is the main resolution that we try to achieve with this meditation.

Animals such as the cat and spider have this deceptive mind. The way people fight is different, but the fighting is the same—one group against another, each an enemy to the other. Animals also have political minds and cheat one another. Even monkeys know how to throw things on people’s heads. Humans fighting and trying to control each other are no different than animals, and this is not human knowledge. However competent a person is in such knowledge, this is not human knowledge.

In Tibet if a rat is left to live in a room it just runs here and there, but if disturbed it eats clothes and other objects of attachment belonging to the people. If someone harms the rats they try to harm the person as much as they can by destroying things or food that the people take great care of.

2. Anyway, this is not the purpose of the human rebirth. Its purpose is to try to bring every sentient being into everlasting happiness, and also to develop the neutral feeling, to see all sentient beings equally. Animals, those lower beings, cannot do this. Achievement of this meditation is the purpose of taking the human rebirth. Even animals have friends, enemy, stranger-dogs, rats, and so on. Humans shouldn’t follow the same pattern, as this is not human behavior, but rather behavior similar to that of an animal. Also, animals help those whom they are attached to as much as they can, and try to destroy enemies as much as possible, so to do so is not human action from the Dharma point of view.

The human aim is to bring peace, perfect peace, not only to humans but to all sentient beings. Even if I achieve this, it cannot be transplanted to other sentient beings, and it cannot be shared. Therefore there must be some other way to bring them peace. Bringing peace to other sentient beings depends on completely releasing them from the unsubdued mind that disturbs perfect peace and this depends on their having the complete achievement of method. Thus, bringing them to peace depends on each of us achieving enlightenment—without this, without understanding their levels of mind, we cannot help each sentient being in the wisest way.

For each of us, receiving enlightenment must be achieved by following tantric practice and practicing the six paramitas. This depends on full realization of the absolute true nature. This depends on realization of great compassion and great love. For these, we should have the experience of the practice, the mind that is well trained in the practice of the basic Mahayana meditations, or the citta, the mind, that has been received through the practice of making oneself equal with other sentient beings, and exchanging oneself with others. These basic Mahayana practices depend on knowing that all sentient beings have been our mothers and that they are infinitely kind. To make ourselves well-trained in this basic practice depends on the fundamental Mahayana equilibrium meditation. Also, without higher Mahayana meditation we cannot receive the tantric path.

Therefore, the practice of the Mahayana equilibrium meditation brings peace and escape from suffering by achieving enlightenment. It also has the power to bring all sentient beings into perfect happiness. Therefore, meditation is the principal cause of the most perfect peace, enlightenment, and is the principal cause of the most perfect happiness, enlightenment, for all sentient beings. It can be the beneficial cause bringing perfect peace to every number of sentient beings.

So actually, what brings the world into peace? We always talk about “peace” society, country, family, group—each thinks it is making peace. In each country the different groups want peace their own way, they make constructions and arrangements for peace, and make weapons for peace. None of them brings peace to himself, let alone others in the group or country, or all sentient beings. Because these things are not done in cooperation with Dharma, they never bring peace. The practice of the Mahayana equilibrium meditation, however, can really bring peace. First we ourselves gain peace, and then with our own experience of perfect peace, with perfect power and understanding, we can enlighten all parents, relatives, societies, populations, all humans, even all sentient beings, into the highest, perfect peace.

Even if we haven’t achieved perfect peace, the mind that is living in the practice of subduing the negative mind and killing the unsubdued mind, the cause of suffering for ourselves and others, helps other people a great deal. At the same time the practice does this, it subdues the negative mind, fertilizes the mind like a field, and helps others. Wherever one living in this practice goes and travels, for all surrounding people and other sentient beings, any sentient beings, there is less suffering and problems and fewer enemies.

Enemy is only created by the negative, unsubdued mind. This practice subdues the negative mind; therefore, this person doesn’t create problems for others—parents, children, any others—wherever he goes, no matter which countries. His mind is always thinking of people as he helps others with understanding, with wisdom, as he doesn’t create problems with the partial feelings towards friend and enemy. Traveling people always have problems like this—two people start a problem, it gets bigger and bigger, more people get involved—different castes, groups societies, and countries. Same problem, one country attached to one, not to another.

Even if there was only one human being on this earth, only one person left, would that person be in peace? Even though he killed all the others, he would have no peace. He may miss his friends, and there would be many other problems. Because the principal cause, the unsubdued mind, has not been controlled, there can be no peace.

Those who landed on the moon should have the achievement of perfect peace because there are no other people there that they can see. But real peace is the cessation of greed, hatred, and ignorance. Even if the mind is not completely out of it, we should engage in fewer actions that arise from greed, hatred, and ignorance; this is different. Peace doesn’t depend on the place or on being alone—so this person living in practice becomes a person that all people like, his personality is good as he doesn’t follow his negative, unsubdued mind, or greed, ignorance, and hatred. He doesn’t create problems. If he was attached to one, he would hate another, and the hated person wouldn’t like the person to whom he was attached, would be jealous, confused, and feel hatred, also causing others to fight in jealousy. But because his actions with others are equal he doesn’t create problems of confusion, feeling hate, causing others to fight in jealousy. Because his actions with others are equal he doesn’t make others confused. His mind is always in peace and happiness, not uptight, like water boiling. His mind is always relaxed, so good, and his vibration, his influence, is good towards others, making others like him. He always has fewer problems. Even though he has not achieved cessation, he is living in the practice.

This practice is only to do with the mind—it doesn’t depend on bells, dorjes, or desks. It is only mental action. It has that much power, but if we go to find that mind, it is difficult to find. But its power is beyond the objects of our mind.

3. This is a very true, logical reason. Both of us desire happiness and don’t desire suffering, therefore we are equal. I have life, he has life; there is no difference. Why should I care more for myself than for him? There is no logical reason to underestimate the other. So why should I harm him? If he disturbs me, if he enjoys my clothes or takes my food, as we are equal—both not desiring suffering, both needing happiness—there is no reason to kill him because he used my enjoyments, no reason to react to him. As I desire happiness, so does he, there is no reason to take less care of him than of myself. He also has life, mind, and feelings, so it is the same thing.

4. The falsely conceived self-existent “I” is not on any part of the body or the mind, and is not in the continuity of the mind. The self-existent “I” is the mind “I” that does not depend on body, mind, the creator of the “I,” or the word or name, “I.” (The creator of the “I,” and of every existence, is the mind. But “I” does depend on the word (and the other senses). For example, “Max” is an object of the five skandhas, and does not exist as an entity. The wrong conception of “self-I” is beginningless. As long as this exists it is perpetuated and leads to viewing others as self-existent. The pure “I” that is seen by the enlightened beings is within us all. False views of self and others means objects are viewed falsely, as self-existent. Attachment leads to greed and hate, and so the ignorant mind increases. To get out of suffering, first check in, and see yourself as non self-existent. The check out and see objects in their true nature. The self-I consciousness is the creator of samsara and can be cured by all these basic meditations.

The body is not “I,” yet if someone hits it I get angry. I say, “He’s disturbing me,” discriminating in words that are empty. If we check up right at that time, we can’t find the “I” that the anger feels anywhere in the body—none of the aggregates is “me.” We can check up if the anger is not strong. So there is no reason to get angry.

The partial mind is an expectant mind and makes a friend of someone who will help some time in the future, or who has helped in the past.

Palden Chödak (Dharmakirti) was a highly realized Indian Pandit who wrote the root of the logic (Compendium on Valid Cognition), originally explained by Guru Shakyamuni. This text proved past lives and so forth, and showed how Guru Shakyamuni was the founder of the presentation of the logical evolution of the mind.

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The self-I consciousness is ignorance. The “I” consciousness as such is not ignorance. It is thinking, “I am self-existent” that is ignorance. This causes attachment to the “I”, the self-entity, the self-existent “I.” The more profoundly the “I” seeks the less “I” can find it. But without checking, to my ordinary mind it seems it is always there, as if this whole body is “I,” one with “I.” We think, “This is I.” Without checking, there is this feeling. But although I’m attached to this “I,” I can’t find it—if I check and seek it—it exists nowhere. That’s why “I” is void of a self-existent “I,” that’s why the body-mind combination is void of the self-I. Anyway; it doesn’t matter.

On this basis, due to the feeling that this body is one with “I,” attachment to “I” arises.

So, that’s how this wrong conception is the base of attachment to “I.” As I feel this I can’t find “I,” so when I seek and find that there’s no “I,” I then lose attachment to it. The attachment decreases and loses its strength. The uptight feeling becomes loose, sort of free. For example, if there’s not the table supporting the objects, the objects fall down—there is no foundation. It is the same thing with the self-I conception and attachment that arises due to greed. Attachment doesn’t find an object to be attached to, like a person throwing eggs can’t find a target, or like someone trying to put things in space, expecting them to stay up. Since it can’t find the object of attachment, the attachment itself has to be lost. Attachment to the “I” is based on the wrong conception of self-I.

As this wrong conception sees “I” as a self-entity, also the “I” object of attachment is based on that view of the self-entity and is seen as good and beautiful. It thinks, “I am good.” In the same way that there is attachment to “I,” this brings attachment to my pleasures and possessions, my body, and so forth. So now anyone who disturbs my pleasure is recognized as the enemy as the anger comes. As the anger sees the disturbing person as ugly, he is discerned as the enemy. That negative mind of hatred sees him as ugly due to the attachment to pleasure. Then attachment discerns the one who helps my pleasure to be friend. The one who neither disturbs nor helps is discerned as stranger.

There is much confusion between the enemy and the subject, “me,” and also between the friend and “me.” There are many kinds of confusion—in different ways the mind is uptight, attached, wants to react, and wants to give harm. There is being hateful toward one person by discrimination of self-I and self-you, as if he is also a self-existent person, or a self-entity. Then we fight, and so many other types of negative mind arise, such as anger and so forth. There are complaints, destruction of one’s own and of others’ things, life dangers, and also there is much confusion. Both actions, attachment and hatred, are negative. One makes us not realise the faults of hatred, the future suffering result, and the other makes us not recognize the faults of attachment, causing ignorance to increase and making one deeply ignorant. Therefore, as both are negative, many causes of suffering are created by the person. Some sufferings have to be experienced in this life, others in future lives, depending on the karma.

All these problems come originally from the self-I consciousness and the attachment to “I.” If we are not attached to “I” there is no way to be attached to pleasures and possessions. Then there is no way to dupe the enemy, or to help someone while discriminating “friend.” As there is no discrimination there is no negative mind creating future suffering. The main thing is this—all the problems, all these discriminations of friend, enemy, and stranger that are made by the negative mind, the whole thing comes from attachment to “I” from self—the “I” consciousness, the wrong mind of a non-existent object. So the whole thing is wrong, illogical. It is never true because the creator of discrimination, the negative mind, is a false mind, and this negative mind comes from the self-I consciousness, which views the wrong object that doesn’t exist anywhere. The self-I actions are wrong, because self-I is a false conception. For example, if the roots are poisoned the whole tree becomes poisoned—the branches, fruit, and so forth. Or, this wrong conception sees me barking and since he dislikes dogs he discriminates this as bad. This is illogical because it doesn’t exist as he sees it, his perception is wrong. He sees an object that doesn’t exist for the logical relative mind, and is not true to the omniscient mind. The object, dog, is not true and doesn’t exist. If it did exist it should be seen by the omniscient mind, and if it’s not seen by the omniscient mind then it doesn’t exist.

So it’s all false, since it starts with the wrong conception that views an object that doesn’t exist anywhere. The whole evolution from there is not true, so how can we trust the negative mind that discriminates the enemy? If we could, then we could trust the view of the self-”I” consciousness—”I” as a self-entity. This consciousness is like the mother who produces many children. But we can’t trust it because we can’t find it, (although if we don’t seek it we think it exists), and we don’t find it since it doesn’t exist. If we discriminate and trust the wrong view it only brings us more suffering and conflicts, only causes us to go deeper into conflict and sinking.

5. These two negative actions help us to remain in samsara longer, to continually experience all the different sufferings, and prevent all the realizations. That is the result of our following these negative minds in previous times—that is what those negative minds have done to us, and we should continually remember this. We have to work and examples are useful to understand Dharma, to advance the mind, but we don’t have to practice the ordinary examples. Without practicing, just by understanding these examples, we can achieve all realizations. That is the power of the mind, although this seems impossible to the ordinary mind, from the ignorant point of view.

An ordinary example: if he touched me in earlier life, disturbed my relatives or myself, caused me trouble and suffering, beating or starving me, then because of this impression I have, I still remember the effects that I received from him in previous times, I still remember the suffering and how he caused me trouble. Because I keep on remembering this, my mind is always spiteful. The idea of him as a bad person remains in my mind, even if is not spoken—it continues to happen in the mind. As memory gets stronger and stronger, that much more I dislike him, that much more anger comes. I detest and dislike him more, and so the anger gets stronger. Just like this, anger and more dislike start to rise when we only talk about the effect of the suffering he gave me. Then feeling arises, the desire to destroy him, retaliate, and harm him. I am greatly willing to make him non-existent, I think how good it will be when he is non-existent, how happy I will be.

In this way, more and more we should remember the faults of the negative mind, continually remember the faults of the negative mind of attachment, and see anger and hatred as the worst poison—as poison in the stomach that causes us great suffering, not knowing when we will die. As we would wish to take that poison out of our bodies without even leaving it for a minute longer, we should develop a similar feeling towards our negative minds. Being afraid of these minds, we should renounce them.

6. Negative impressions arise from discriminating with hatred and greed, which leaves negative impressions bringing suffering results and similar actions. Each time we do this, the mind becomes more ignorant. Habitual actions of animals, people, and so forth are done without being taught, actions such as greed, anger, theft, and sexual intercourse are done intuitively—they are habitual actions, done in past lives. They don’t depend on someone teaching them. Additional negative impressions cause us to repeat these actions in this life, and will cause us to repeat them again in the future. In this way the mind is made more ignorant, and as this happens we engage in different negative actions that will cause our future suffering for eons.

7. We think that there is a need to hate the enemy because he complains or because he hates me and so forth. Although it is my perception that there is someone there, that a voice or hand is raised, this means that my understanding of evolution is incomplete. If I react to this and get angry, it means I should also get angry with the miraculous, apparitional person transformed from an object by a magician, because as the enemy is dependent on the existence of his body, and we believe deep in the heart that his body is enemy, so is the miraculous person dependent on the object (that was the base of the transformation) and on the black magician. So for the same reason, I should get angry and fight and kill this miraculous person—he is also dependent. But this would be considered silly, ignorant, knowing that it’s a mere transformation. The person who understands that this is only a transformation created by another person sees no reason to react to it—anger doesn’t arise as he sees that the object is not a real, true person. And when the person who does not understand that it’s only a transformation realizes this, he discovers himself to be foolish.

It is the same thing in terms of someone who understands the absolute true nature of a person, of karma, and has the same feeling as that first person, thinking that getting angry is meaningless and a waste of energy. He sees the person as being completely empty of that self-existent enemy. Therefore he doesn’t react and get angry, just as that other person doesn’t react to the transformation. The person seeing the absolute true nature sees it only as dependent, a creation of the magician. He sees the “enemy” as dependent, and his body as dependent.

First, we got angry with the body as it is moving. But his head is not the body, and the hand, leg, and so forth are not the body, even the whole group is not the body, so how can I harm or kill the body? If I check up I can’t find the body, so how can I harm or kill it? Secondly, think about the mind. It is also dependent, as is the body. His dependent body has no control, his mind causes physical action, so his mind is enemy. Then check up mind. “Mind” is only a word, merely a name, it is also dependent—on time, on the difference of continuity in different time, on each split second. Mind is not one with the enemy and the enemy is not one with mind, as he is not one with the body. If he was one with the continuity of mind, he should always be the enemy in the past and future. If he was a friend in earlier life or in previous lives, he should be enemy and friend together, and the same in the future, when enlightened. But we can’t find the enemy since we can’t find the body—his body is not one with all parts of his body, so the enemy is not one with all parts of his body, so the enemy is not one with his body. Nor is he one with his mind.

“Body,” “mind,” and “enemy” are only words. Just as the miraculous person is dependent on the observer, the magician, the object transformed, and so on, this enemy is also dependent. As it is a mere name, we cannot find it as one with body and mind. “Enemy,” “body,” and “mind” are the same—just words. We fight the enemy without recognizing what it is. Actually, getting angry for many years, fighting, making arrangements to kill him—all this is done for that word “enemy.” Many difficulties arise only for the name “enemy.” The whole life and all our energy is spent only for that name or word, to try to destroy it. But there is no reason to fight and make great arrangements just because of a name. It is impossible to find anything that is not a mere creation of name. We will never find anything that is not called by a name, such a thing can never exist. So the whole life’s anger and so forth are all meaningless because there is no such thing. The enemy is only called by name, the mind getting spiteful, wasting energy. It’s just like the child who builds in the sand, saying, “This is my father, this is my mother,” or who plays with toys and when they break worries and cries, “My house is broken.” Why does this happen? Because of the child’s belief. Even though it is not true, the belief makes it seem real. From the point of view of the older person, the child’s action is silly, not worth crying over. This is similar to our own actions, but we don’t recognize it.

Our negative minds of attachment and anger make the quick changes of friend and enemy due to ignorance. Things keeps on changing—stranger, friend, enemy—going from one to the other, from beginningless lives until now. They change within an hour due to a desire based on attachment and ignorance, a desire of that moment. Therefore the friend is not a true friend, a real friend, and neither is the enemy true or real. Whenever we are attached to someone who offers things or says nice things we should be conscious that he has killed us in the past and that he will again do so in the future. This causes us to not be attached, because as long as we are in samsara he will be an enemy, so there is nothing to trust. The trusting mind of attachment arises from the feeling that he will be a permanent friend, so we spend much time and energy, not looking after our own life, not checking our own mind or following disciplines, but just becoming his tail, following him and doing as he does. We waste much time in life and don’t look after it, don’t create positive karma and merits, and therefore don’t quickly get out of samsara. This is very dangerous. For the person who practices meditation this is one of the greatest disturbances to both Dharma practice and meditation. It doesn’t mean that we should completely forget that friend, make him not be an object of true love and true compassion. This is a mistake. However long the road to enlightenment may be, it has to be followed carefully and we can’t run without looking. If any being, including an animal, is no longer an object of true love and true compassion then the person who forgets that being as an object is practicing incorrectly. Also, this breaks the bodhisattva vows. If we completely renounce anyone from being an object of true love and true compassion, it’s very dangerous.

Also, it is a mistake to think that Dharma practice stops samsaric enjoyments. If we have achieved mental control, we can make actions that look like samsaric actions the cause of enlightenment. For example, this can apply to having a family, being king, (protecting the population in the proper way, through positive karma; developing the country in a negative way, through negative karma, brings confusion, however), or marriage can become the cause for receiving enlightenment more quickly. Ordinary actions, even killing people, can become a quick cause of receiving enlightenment by a person who has mental control, control over the negative minds of attachment, greed, hatred, and ignorance—this person we call a “saint.”

The person living in negative mind yet behaving as if he has control, having no discrimination but acting as if he has achievement of higher tantric realizations based an bodhicitta cannot be a saint, however beautiful the clothes he wears, however beautiful he looks, however sweetly he speaks. Dharma doesn’t depend on how an action looks, it depends on the mind. One action that looks negative can be done with a negative or positive mind. The action that looks positive done with positive mind is really positive, and vice versa. All depends on the creator, which is mind.

We can transcend any samsaric enjoyment, such as the enjoyment of sexual intercourse, into a shortcut to enlightenment, which is more beneficial to other living beings than living in the discipline. But for that kind of higher tantric practice we need mental control based on bodhicitta. Without the achievement of bodhicitta we cannot transcend samsaric enjoyments and cannot make them a shortcut—we cannot receive such power. Until we have complete mental control through tantric practice, control over discriminations, the dualistic view, and dualistic mind, until we receive this kind of control and bodhicitta, it is more beneficial to oneself and to other beings for one to follow mental disciplines. In such a situation, following the moral disciplines is more beneficial and is a quicker way to receive enlightenment. But when one has this control, the purpose of the disciplines has been realized—the purification of negative mind and dualistic view—as has that of other practices such as offerings, prayers, prostrations, charity, and so forth. Then other actions, which were not allowed when in training, are much more powerful, and become a strong cause to receive enlightenment more quickly, for the benefit of self and others. One can use samsaric enjoyments in a much higher way, and make the happiness of these enjoyments much richer and greater by transcending the dual mind. Such happiness is infinite happiness and nothing can compare to it, even the pleasure of samadhi meditation, which is itself far greater than sexual happiness. The happiness the yogi achieves through mental control is incomparable to that of samadhi—happiness that fills the whole body—so how can it be compared to sexual happiness? In fact, this is not real pleasure but is suffering because it is changeable suffering, so it is in the nature of pervasive suffering.

The yogi’s enjoyments may outwardly look samsaric but can be developed to only bring enlightenment, and make him more beneficial to all sentient beings. Until we achieve mental control and bodhicitta we live in negative mind, which only causes disturbance to the achievement of mental control, bodhicitta, and so forth due to the creator, the negative mind that is not purified. But if there is no negative mind, no negative creator of negative actions, we only create positive karma, so we can transcend any enjoyments, bringing infinite happiness. The creator of bad karma is destroyed and purified by following mental discipline.

If we want to make samsaric enjoyment into higher, pure, transcendental, new experiences, different from the usual happiness, if we are born with the usual samsaric enjoyments, even if we don’t want to think of enlightenment or future lives, then first it is necessary to achieve mental control on the basis of bodhicitta practice, which depends on the practice of the equilibrium meditation. This can be done even by a person who doesn’t wish to experience suffering but who is not concerned with enlightenment or interested in Dharma practice. We must have mental discipline, making the disturbances to enlightenment less, otherwise we never get mental control. The mind has to be purified and the creation of new disturbances has to be ceased. For example, the criminal who engaged in negative actions is punished for breaking the law and has to vow in front of the judge that he will follow the law and not do it again.

If we ride on a crazy elephant to Katmandu, we won’t get there on time and we might be killed as the elephant runs through fields, forests, and over rocks and so forth. Therefore we must control the elephant and subdue it. The mind, like an elephant, should be controlled and cured from its craziness. Then we can follow the path to Katmandu as we want.

Guru Shakyamuni’s quotation.

In ancient times an ascetic was begging and came to a family in which the mother and father had died. Their baby was on someone’s lap and there was a dog eating bones. Due to his psychic powers the yogi saw the past lives of all these beings. The baby had been the enemy before, the dog had been the mother, and the bones it was eating were from an animal that had been the father in its previous life.

This sutra quotation is medicine to cure the problem of attachment. There is not any point in killing the enemy, or even every sentient being, as we have already done this in countless previous lives and it still hasn’t prevented enemies from arising. Killing an enemy only results in our own suffering in the lower realms for eons. Creating any negative karma only makes our own enemy. The problem cannot be solved externally—when we cease being an enemy to ourselves, then all other enemies disappear.

10. The enemy is the object of meditation and so is a fundamental thing for enlightenment. Therefore there is no such thing as enemies—they always help us. They help the practices of patience, of great love, and great compassion.

II. How Guru Shakyamuni Received Enlightenment from this Enemy

(i) Without having this body we can’t have any of the pleasures that are experienced by the body. The body comes from the mother’s body. All sentient beings have been our mothers countless times. Our present mother gave us our present body. Also, there is not one body that the enemy has never taken, therefore the enemy has been my mother. So we can reason that all the physical bodily pleasures of past times came from that enemy. But this is still a small reason.

(ii) When the enemy wasn’t our mother and was the mother of other beings we received happiness from him. Take the example of the present life. Happiness depends on many other beings besides our mother—clothes, food, entertainment, and so forth are produced by many beings who bore great difficulties to produce them, especially farmers who worked on the land to produce food, killing great numbers of other beings such as insects and worms. (These beings were thus sacrificed for our food.) Consider the work in a handful of rice—even a rice seed is the result of a previous seed and so on—each is the result of sentient beings’ sufferings. If we check back clearly and see how many beings have suffered for that wheat or that rice, we don’t feel worthy of eating it. So, too, with clothes and all other comforts. This is one reason why all sentient beings are kind. As this is the case, how can I spend my life on comforts without repaying all sentient beings? It is so selfish to work for my own perfect peace. In my countless previous lives such pleasures have also depended on other sentient beings.

So the enemy, apart from being my mother, has also been working for my pleasures without beginning. And as long as we are in samsara, my future pleasures also will have to depend on him.

(iii) Every past, present, and future happiness comes from the enemy and depends on positive karma. Even the pleasure of a cool breeze depends on positive karma, depends even on the enemy who cuts my body to pieces. The positive karmas that I created are all shown as such by the teachings of the enlightened beings, to whom the enemy was also kind. All enlightened beings received enlightenment through the path, starting with lower realizations of the perfect human rebirth and then the higher realizations of the equilibrium meditation and bodhicitta. Without depending on the enemy, they couldn’t have received realizations, they couldn’t have practiced the six paramitas, and they couldn’t have practiced the equilibrium meditation. Without the realization of the equality of all sentient beings, there is no way to receive bodhicitta. Also, without the enemy we can’t develop great compassion. The enemy has to be the object of these meditations, as does every sentient being.

Therefore, this enemy gave enlightenment to Guru Shakyamuni and all the infinite Buddhas (although this doesn’t mean that his actual physical presence was with the Buddha) and so gave us the chance to study Dharma and to receive enlightenment ourselves. So in fact the enemy, this enemy that cuts my body, is even more precious than the infinite Buddhas.

The root of all happiness is therefore the enemy—if we trace this back we see that it is true, so can anyone more precious than the enemy be found?

12. Enlightenment depends on the development of bodhicitta, which depends on meditating on every sentient being without exception, including the enemy. To live in the bodhisattva path, we need the strong will that is able to renounce the body and anything else to give the enemy even a little happiness. This is exactly the opposite of our usual reaction. Such understanding is the medicine that sees the enemy as the most precious, and is of extreme importance. It is achieved through meditation practice and developed continually until enlightenment. It is not enough only to know the words, it has to be done by training the mind. But meditating on this point of the enemy alone is inadequate; we must gain the other understandings too.

13. If we are being verbally abused, before or as anger arises, we should do mental research on these points so that there is no hurt. This kind of hurt is only a conception, as opposed to the physical wound inflicted by a stick. In fact it is quite wrong to use the word “hurt” for any verbal assault and even physical hurt is really a mental conception. For example, when children are beaten by their parents they don’t get angry, but they do when they are beaten by other children. Masochism is another example. Any situation in which I am experiencing hurt because of a physical or verbal action is my own karmic result, and at this point uncontrolled. I should not create any more bad karma with anger.

15. Guru Shakyamuni’s teaching is to have compassion for all sentient beings—these are instructions to me from the perfect guide to enlightenment. Therefore, to have anger or hate towards any sentient being, who is the object of Guru Shakyamuni’s compassion, is to oppose him. If we don’t understand his compassion then these are only words. His compassion sees every being’s suffering and he wants to release them from suffering right now. Therefore, to feel anything but compassion towards any person or any other sentient being is to fight against Guru Shakyamuni, to oppose his work. Even though I don’t have such compassion I must not oppose his. To do so is also against all the infinite buddhas. I must help the antagonist out of suffering, help him to reach enlightenment. Any method of help must have his enlightenment in view. This doesn’t mean following his orders and so on. If he has no understanding, he is ignorant. But this does mean that I must help him not create negative karma. If possible I should check his mind and find its level to know how to help him.

17. As the infinite Buddhas are servants so must be the ignorant “I.”

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Realizations depend on meditation (which creates some good karma) and on the creation of the good karma to purify negativity by such means as prostrations, offering, cleaning holy places, confessing past negative actions, and praying to Guru Shakyamuni for realizations. But to receive them we must have the will to make a decision. Guru Shakyamuni said, “Meditating without recognizing your own mind is faulty. At the time of death it goes the wrong way.”

Thinking that meditation is easy because the words are simple is erroneous. But finding the practice easy is good, otherwise we tend not to do it. Ancient meditators took time to reach realizations, but experienced more great difficulties. So should we.

THE SEVEN TECHNIQUES OF MAHAYANA CAUSE AND EFFECT (Page 109)

Even if we don’t receive realizations, meditating and practicing the seven techniques leaves an impression on the mind and brings it closer to realization of bodhicitta. Then in future human lives when we hear the explanations again we can understand them more easily and achieve realizations more quickly. We must keep the practice of the equilibrium meditation close to the heart. Its purpose is to receive realizations and it is very worthwhile to spend several years or the whole of our life on this; this varies with the person. Understanding depends on the level of mind and is related to previous karmic impressions from practices in past lives and to the amount of merits.

1. How are all sentient beings my mother? When meditating on this point we should visualize our mother, father, enemy, and a stranger in front of us surrounded by all sentient beings. All are equal.

Remember, when a relative gives you a gift don’t be attached, and when seeing an enemy don’t get angry. Father has also been mother in countless previous lives, as have enemy and stranger.

(iv) It is true that Buddha sees everything that exists. As the beginning of the mind, which is the time that sentient beings began to be our mother, doesn’t exist, he with omniscient mind doesn’t see it. The time of my present mother being my mother has no beginning either.

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2. Remembering the Kindness of All Mother Sentient Beings

As life goes on and we experience enjoyments, we should always remember to check that this is due to the kindness of our mother. Everything we do—check the whole life and sees that this is true. Good karma is the principal cause that allows us to receive the mother’s kindness. She is the cooperative cause.

(i) The bad karma created by the mother is due to the body’s bad karma necessitating its rebirth. This can be responsible for many of the beings suffering in the naraks—all have been my mother. So also have all those suffering in other realms.

(ii) Getting out of samsara releases all future mothers from creating bad karma by giving us rebirth.

(iii) Therefore, it’s a very selfish mind that keeps being reborn.

(iv) Even if we don’t see it, the enlightened being does.

(v) Once we realise this we can see how selfish it is to work for our own everlasting happiness alone. We must help all these suffering mother sentient beings as they helped us. They remain ignorant of the truth and rely on us.

Such realizations build strong Mahayana practice. As this will is built stronger, we make charity with our bodies for the sake of sentient beings through the development of bodhicitta. The pain decreases.

Remember—as the mother did this, so was the father the mother, as was the enemy, and the stranger, and every sentient being. We should consider the difficulties of the mother as a bird, as a dog, and so on, in all sorts of lives.

The mother here refers to the continuity of the one person

3. Repaying the Kindness of All Mother Sentient Beings (Page 111)

The limited mind repays the trivial kindness of the moment without understanding that they have given countless cups of tea over countless lives. There are far greater debts that we owe to all sentient beings.

We have not yet repaid them with the true realization of Dharma.

4. Equalizing Oneself with Others (Page 113)

The essential way to practice this meditation is to regard the suffering of other beings exactly as we regard our own, and help the other as if he were “I,” with no expectations, as if I were helping myself. Live in the practice. Completely change the old motives and actions of beginningless lives. Care only for curing his suffering with sincere, generous, and un-crooked mind. This is how the bodhisattva acts, renouncing himself and suffering instead of others. We are nowhere near approximating this. We must really believe that the other’s body is our own and feel as if what happens to his body happens to our own. If we don’t do this, other things won’t come.

When we fight we do so with self-I and self-other discrimination—these things are just conceptions and we can train the mind to feel another’s body as our own. We feel our own body’s pain as a conception, so why not others? Originally our body was the father’s and mother’s but the mind learned to regard it as our own, thinking, “This is me.” Why does such a conception exist strongly and why do we take best care of it? Because this thought has been habitual for beginningless lives. We have had much training in it. We take better care of this body than of our parents’ bodies even though it was theirs. This conception originally arose from ignorance. To bring perfect peace to oneself and others the practice of exchanging oneself for others is essential. It is an essential bodhisattva practice.

Anytime we need to meditate on all sentient beings, we should just think of how many insects there are on a hill, how many tiny creatures in the ocean, how many humans, pretas, suras, asuras, and bodhisattvas there are in existence.

We should think, “Since beginningless times, of all sentient beings in the universe I have been taking most care of myself. In order to reach enlightenment I have to change this old character, which did not care for other beings’ suffering, into the complete opposite, i.e. into the other being, and so take less care of myself than of other beings. The object has changed from me to the other.”

This is regarded as a mystical practice, a high practice needing great knowledge, but with numberless benefits. It brings perfect peace and enlightenment more quickly than the earlier meditation practices. It is the best puja, and can stop hindrances to the realizations of Mahayana practices, such as realizations of the six paramitas. It is of the utmost necessity for tantric practice, this great holy thought of taking care of others more than oneself.

Why is the tantric path such a quick path to enlightenment that it can bring this state in a lifetime? This is caused by this practice of exchanging oneself for others. Due to this powerful practice there is a shortcut to enlightenment. But it depends on how strongly the mind can live in this practice—the definition of how quickly tantric practice brings enlightenment is principally in this point. It is how Milarepa and other Indian and Tibetan yogis reached enlightenment. It is the most powerful way to purify negativity.

This was the instruction given to Guru Tsongkhapa by Manjushri, the Buddha of Wisdom. Tsongkhapa was given many instructions, especially regarding shunyata. When he was training his mind in these practices in retreat, he created many merits, and created further merits by also doing many other purification practices, such as offering the mandala and making prostrations. He trained in absolute truth, shunyata, and so forth, and Manjushri appeared many times to give him a pure view of these realizations. Therefore Tsongkhapa’s views of these subjects are very pure and clear, and to study Tsongkhapa’s teachings on absolute truth is the best way to study, never bringing wrong realizations. Tsongkhapa was told by Manjushri that the tantric path is not quick without living in the practice of exchanging oneself for others. For such a mind, it is unbearable that sentient beings are not enlightened and are suffering for even one second. Without this mind, enlightenment in a lifetime is impossible, even if one spends one’s whole life in a cave, as many animals do, and in silence. To follow the tantric path and practice it, one must take more care of others than of oneself.

Also, any kind of heavy negative karma created, such as killing your parents and so on, can be quickly purified by this practice. Living in this practice can purify a negative action into a positive result. For example, when Guru Shakyamuni was living as a bodhisattva he took birth into the family of a leading trader-businessman who carried jewels by ship from other countries. On the ship one day there were five hundred other business people and Guru Shakyamuni saw that one of them wanted to kill all the others, and that if he did so it would be good for neither those five hundred nor for the killer himself, who would create much heavy negative karma. Therefore he thought it better that he himself suffer for one hundred thousand eons in the narak realms rather than the other person. In killing the would-be killer, he renounced his own happiness for the other’s due to his great bodhicitta mind. Guru Shakyamuni killed the other person, but since it was done with great compassion, the action became positive, a method of purification. This action actually diminished the length of time he had to remain in samsara by one million eons. He spent less time in samsara rather than more even though he killed that man. The man he killed was actually saved from far worse suffering, and Guru Shakyamuni also had great compassion for the five hundred threatened people.

At another time Guru Shakyamuni was born into a family that made clay pots. He was celibate, living in precepts. One day he saw a girl about to commit suicide because of incredible great greed—she was desperate because she couldn’t find a man. Due to great compassion he renounced himself, his mind based on taking care of others more than oneself, and without experiencing the pleasures of temporal life, samsaric pleasures, he spent twelve years living with the girl and family. Then he left and resumed celibacy. But due to his pure mind, guiding the girl from suicide and living without samsaric pleasure, this potentially negative action of breaking precepts became positive, and the time he would remain in samsaric life decreased from thirty thousand eons to four thousand.

Maitreya’s disciple Pagpa Togme (Asanga), spent twelve years in meditation before he saw Maitreya. During this time he developed the great compassion that one day suddenly purified his obscurations and allowed him to see Maitreya. He went to Maitreya’s realms for teachings, a god realm, for one human month there, which equaled fifty years of earth time.

Atisha’s guru also had to develop great compassion before he saw Avalokiteshvara—one has to purify many obscuration before one can do this—and he also saw Maitreya. Atisha purified and saw Tara, the female aspect of Buddha, who appears in such form for the benefit of sentient beings. She gave Atisha many instructions, including the instructions that he was also to go to Tibet and give teachings. He did this and purified the corrupted Dharma there. Purification leads to contract with enlightened beings. The aspect of Buddha that one sees depends on the karma of the meditator—whichever aspect is the closest is the one you will see. You can then have discussions, ask questions, and receive instructions. There are infinite aspects of the buddhas.

We should ease the sufferings of others as the hand removes a thorn from the foot. The principal instruction for curing the suffering of others is to have no expectations. The highly mystic and holy teaching of taking care of others more than oneself was kept close to the heart by Atisha and other great pandits. A most purifying practice, it was secret for a long time. Shantideva received this equalizing practice from the Buddha of Wisdom. It is the most pure way to receive bodhicitta. It stops any hindrances and dangers to life, and other dangers. It is the best medicine to cure suffering.

As Guru Shakyamuni received bodhicitta before Maitreya, he came to earth first. He had such a strong, holy mind, taking care of others more than himself, that while still a bodhisattva he prayed to be born in a bad place amongst ignorant people at an unfortunate time where there was darkness of teachings. Therefore he appeared on earth prior to Maitreya to give us the possibility of studying these teachings and purifying our negativity. Understanding the teachings of the meditation course is due to the kindness of his holy mind, taking care of others more than himself, as is finding the purpose of human life.

We should pray for the continued existence of the teachings until samsara ends, since without them there is far more unhappiness and suffering. Good karma brings happiness and we need teachings to know about this. If they don’t exist we can’t practice. Even the temporal happiness of a person who knows nothing of teachings, of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha is the result of the teachings because it depends on the creation of good karma in previous lives, and was done then with knowledge of the teachings. This temporal happiness doesn’t come intuitively and thus all happiness depends on the teachings.

We should know what a bodhisattva is and understand how he works and how we can try to follow him, even though we won’t be a bodhisattva in this life. But copying his actions, acting like a bodhisattva, is good training for the mind, helps to develop bodhicitta, and gets closer and closer to the original. It also helps others. Receiving bodhicitta is a slow process dependent on energy and effort. There are ten levels of bodhisattvas, and even a low bodhisattva without all realizations can be reborn in any place he wants by praying for it, i.e. by controlled rebirth. For example, the Tibetan generation of mankind came from a male monkey (a transformation of Avalokiteshvara) and a female cannibal (a transformation of Tara) who had children whose births were samsaric, or uncontrolled.