by His Holiness Kyabje Ling Rinpoche Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, the senior tutor
of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, is the 97th holder of the Ganden throne and
thus head of the gelug tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. He was ordained by the
Thirteenth Dalai Lama, to whom his predecessor had also been tutor. This teaching
was given at Tushita Mahayana Meditation Centre On November 14th, 1979.
he enlightened attitude, the bodhimind that has
love and compassion as its basis, is the essential seed producing the attainment
of buddhahood. Therefore it is a subject that should be approached with the
pure thought, "May I thus gain enlightenment in order to be of greatest
benefit to the world."
However, there are but very small spiritual effects in hearing teachings on
the bodhimind if we lack a certain spiritual foundation. Consequently, most
teachers insist that disciples cultivate various preliminary practices within
themselves before approaching this higher precept. If we wish to go to university,
we must first learn to read and write. While merely hearing about meditation
on love, compassion and the bodhimind does leave a favorable imprint on our
stream of consciousness, for the teaching to produce a definite inner transformation
we trainees should first meditate extensively on the preliminaries (such as
the preciousness of the human opportunity, death and its significance, the nature
of karma, and samsara, refuge, and the higher trainings in ethics, meditation
and wisdom).
If we wish to attain the state of the full enlightenment of buddhahood as opposed
to the lesser enlightenment of arhantship, our innermost practice must be cultivation
of the bodhimind. Were we instead to make meditation on emptiness our innermost
practice, there would be the possibility of falling into the arhant's nirvana
instead of gaining buddhahood. This teaching is given in the saying, "When
the father is the bodhimind and the mother is wisdom, the child joins the caste
of buddhas." In intercaste marriages in ancient India, children would adopt
the caste of the father, regardless of whether the mother were of higher or
lower caste. Therefore the bodhimind is like the father: if one cultivates the
bodhimind, one enters the caste of buddhas.
Although the bodhimind is the primary force producing buddhahood, bodhimind
as the father must unite with wisdom, or meditation on emptiness, as the mother,
in order to produce a child able to accomplish buddhahood. One without the other
will not bring full enlightenment. The bodhimind is the essential energy that
produces buddhahood, yet throughout its stages of development it should be applied
to meditation on emptiness. In the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras, where Buddha
spoke most extensively on emptiness, we are constantly reminded to place our
meditations on emptiness within the context of the bodhimind.
What precisely is the bodhimind? It is the mind strongly characterized by the
aspiration, "For the sake of all sentient beings I must attain the state
of full enlightenment." It is easy to repeat the words of this aspiration
to ourselves but the bodhimind is something much deeper than this. It is a quality
within the mind systematically cultivated by one of a number of methods, such
as those called "Six Causes and One Effect," or "Exchanging Self(-Awareness)
for (Awareness of) Others."
Merely holding in mind the thought, "I must attain enlightenment for the
sake of benefitting others" without first cultivating the prerequisite
causes, stages and basic foundations of this thought will not give birth to
the bodhimind. For this reason the venerable Atisha (1lth century) once asked,
"Do you know anyone with bodhimind not born from meditation on love and
compassion?" What benefits arise through having generated the bodhimind?
If we know what qualities good food has we will attempt to obtain, prepare and
eat it. Similarly, when we hear of the efficacy of the bodhimind we shall seek
to learn the methods and practices by which it is generated.
The immediate benefit of having given birth to the bodhimind within our mindstream
is that we enter the great vehicle leading to buddhahood and gain the title
of bodhisattva, a son of the buddhas. It does not matter what we look like,
how we dress, how wealthy or powerful we are, whether or not we have clairvoyance
or miraculous powers, or how learned we are: if we have generated the bodhimind
we are bodhisattvas, and regardless of our other qualities, if we do not have
the bodhimind we are not bodhisattvas. A being with the bodhimind who incarnates
as an animal is respected by all the buddhas as being a bodhisattva.
The great sages of the lesser vehicle possess innumerably wondrous qualities,
yet someone who has developed merely the initial stages of the bodhimind surpasses
them in terms of his nature. This is likened to the baby son of a universal
monarch who, although only an infant possessing no qualities of knowledge or
power, is granted a higher status than any scholar or minister in the empire.
In terms of conventional benefits, all the happiness and goodness that exists
is a product of bodhimind. The buddhas are born from bodhisattvas, but the bodhisattvas
are born from the bodhimind. As a result of the birth of the buddhas and bodhisattvas,
great waves of enlightened energy spread throughout the universe, influencing
sentient beings to create positive karma. This positive karma in turn brings
them much benefit and happiness. On the one hand, the mighty stream of enlightened
and enlightening energy issues from the wisdom body of the buddhas, but as the
buddhas are born from bodhisattvas and bodhisattvas from the bodhimind, the
ultimate source of the universal reservoir of goodness and happiness is the
bodhimind itself.
How can we develop the bodhimind? There are two major methods, as mentioned
above. The first of these, the "Six Causes and One Effect," applies
six causal meditations-recognizing that all sentient beings were once one's
own mother; the kindness of a mother; the wish to repay such kindness; love;
compassion; and the extraordinary thought of universal responsibilityto
produce one result: the bodhimind. The second technique is a meditation whereby
one directly changes self-cherishing into the cherishing of others.
In order to practise either of these methods of developing the bodhimind we
must first develop a sense of equanimity toward ail living beings. We must transcend
seeing some beings as close, some as alien and some as merely unknown strangers.
Until we have this equanimity toward all beings, meditation to develop bodhimind
will not be effective. For example, if we wish to paint frescoes on a wall we
must first remove any cracks or lumps from its surface. Similarly, we cannot
draw the image of the bodhimind within ourselves until the mind's view has been
made clean from the distortions of seeing others in terms of friend, enemy and
stranger.
The way we impute this discrimination upon others is quite automatic, and as
a result of it, when we see someone we have labelled as 'friend,' attachment
arises within us and we respond with warmth. Why have we labelled him as 'friend'?
Only because on some level or other he has benefitted or supported us. Alternatively,
whenever we encounter someone whom we have labelled as 'enemy, aversion arises
within us and we respond with coldness. The reason will be because he has once
harmed or threatened us in some way. Again, when encountering a stranger we
simply have no feelings toward him.
Yet if we examine this method of discrimination we quickly see that it is an
unstable process. Even in this life, people once regarded as friends become
enemies and enemies often become friends. And in the countless lives we have
taken since beginningless time while spinning on the wheel of life there is
not one sentient being who has consistently been either our friend or enemy.
Our best friend of this life could easily have been our worst enemy in a previous
incarnation, and vice versa. A friend who mistreats us quickly becomes an enemy,
and an enemy who helps us soon becomes a new-found friend. Someone who last
year was regarded as a friend because he had been kind to us, this year harms
us and is seen as an enemy; last year's enemy this year helps us and becomes
a friend. So which one is really the friend and which one the enemy? Instead
of responding to them on the basis of the ephemeral benefit or harm they have
brought us, we should meditate that all have alternately benefitted and harmed
us in the stream of past lives, and thus abandon superficial discriminations.
A root cause of this discriminating mind is the self-cherishing attitude, the
thought that considers oneself to be more important than others. As a result
of self-cherishing we develop attachment to those who help us and aversion to
those who give us problems. This in turn causes us to create countless negative
karmas in trying to overcome the 'harmers' and support the 'helpers.' Such actions
bring great suffering upon ourselves and others, both immediately and in future
lives, as these karmic seeds ripen into suffering experiences.
There is a teaching that says, "All happiness in this world arises from
cherishing others; every suffering arises from self-cherishing." Why is
this so? From self-cherishing comes the wish to further oneself even at others'
expense. This causes all the killing, stealing, intolerance and so forth that
we see around us. As well as destroying happiness in this life, these negative
activities plant karmic seeds for a future rebirth in the miserable realms of
existencethe hell, hungry ghost and animal realms. Self-cherishing is
responsible for every conflict from a family problem to an international war,
and for all the negative karma thus created.
What are the results of cherishing others? If we cherish others we shall not
harm or kill them. This is conducive to our own long life. When we cherish others
we are open and empathetic with them, and live in generosity. This is a karmic
cause of our own future prosperity. If we cherish others, even when someone
harms or makes problems for us we are able to abide in love and patience, a
karmic cause of having a beautiful form in future lives. In short, every auspicious
condition arises from the positive karmas generated by cherishing others. These
conditions themselves bring joy and happiness, and in addition they act as the
causes of and circumstances leading to nirvana and buddhahood.
How? To gain nirvana one must master the three higher trainings: moral discipline,
meditation and wisdom. Of these the first is the most important because it is
the basis for the development of the other two. The essence of moral discipline
is abandoning any action that brings harm to others. Anyone who cherishes others
more than he cherishes himself will not find this discipline difficult. His
mind will be calm and peaceful, which is conducive to both meditation and wisdom.
Looking at it another way, cherishing others is the proper and noble approach
to take. In this life everything that comes to us is directly or indirectly
due to the kindness of others. We buy food from others in the market; the clothing
we wear and the houses in which we dwell depend upon the assisting participation
of others. And for attaining the ultimate goalsnirvana and buddhahood-we
are completely dependent upon others: without them we would not be able to meditate
upon love, compassion, trust and so forth, and thus would be unable to generate
spiritual experience. Also, any meditation teaching we receive has come from
the Buddha through the kindness of sentient beings. The Buddha taught only to
benefit sentient beings; if there were no sentient beings he would not have
taught. Therefore, in his Bodhisattvacaryavatara, Shantideva comments that in
terms of kindness, the sentient beings are equal to the buddhas. Sometimes,
mistakenly, people have respect and devotion for the buddhas but dislike sentient
beings. We should appreciate sentient beings as deeply as we do the buddhas
themselves.
If we look at happiness and harmony we will find its cause to be universal caring.
The cause of unhappiness and disharmony is the self-cherishing attitude.
At one time the Buddha was an ordinary person like ourselves. Then he gave up
self-cherishing for universal caring and entered the path to buddhahood. Because
we still hold the self-cherishing mind we are left behind in samsara, having
benefitted neither ourselves nor others.
The Jataka Tales (Previous Lives of Buddha) relate that in one earlier incarnation,
the Buddha had been a huge turtle who took pity on several shipwreck victims
and carried them to shore on his back. Once ashore the exhausted turtle fell
into a faint but as he slept he was attacked by thousands of ants. Soon the
biting of the ants woke the turtle up, but when he saw that if he moved he would
kill innumerable creatures, he remained still and offered his body to the insects
as food. This is the depth to which the Buddha cherished living beings. Many
of Ashvagosha's Jataka Tales are dedicated to relating similar accounts of the
Buddha's previous lives, in which the importance of cherishing others is exemplified.
The Wish-Fulfilling Tree has 108 such stories.
Essentially, self-cherishing is the cause of every undesirable experience, and
universal caring is the cause of every happiness. The experiences of the lower
realms of existence, all the suffering of mankind and every interference to
spiritual practice are caused by self-cherishing, and every happiness of this
and future lives comes from universal caring. The subtle limitations of lesser
enlightenment are also caused by self-cherishing,
We should contemplate the benefits of cherishing others and try to develop an
open, loving attitude toward all living beings. This should not be an inert
emotion but should be characterized by great compassion the wish to separate
others from their suffering. When we meet with a being in sorrow our reaction
should be like that of a mother witnessing her only child caught in a fire or
fallen into a terrible river: our main thought should be to help others. Toward
those in states of suffering we should think, "May I help separate them
from their suffering," and for those in states of happiness we should think,
"May I help maintain their happiness." This attitude should be directed
equally toward all beings. Some people feel great compassion for friends or
relatives in trouble but none for unpleasant people or enemies. This is not
spiritual compassion, it is merely a form of attachment. True compassion does
not discriminate between beings; it regards all with an equal emotion.
Similarly, love is the desire to maintain the happiness of all beings impartially,
regardless of whether we like them or not. Spiritual love is of two main types:
that merely possessing equanimity and that possessing the active wish to maintain
others' happiness. When we meditate repeatedly on how all beings have in previous
lives been mother, father and friend to us, we soon come to have equanimity
toward them all. Eventually this develops into an overwhelming wish to see all
beings possess happiness and the causes of happiness. This is great, undiscriminating
love.
By meditating properly on love and compassion we produce what are called the
eight great benefits. These condense into two: producing happiness in this and
future lives for both ourselves and others, and developing along the path to
full and perfect buddhahood. It produces rebirth as a man or god, and fertilizes
the seeds of enlightenment.
In brief, we should have the wish to help others maintain their happiness and
separate from suffering regardless of whether they have acted as friend or enemy
to us. Moreover, we should develop a personal sense of responsibility for their
happiness. This is called "the special thought" or "the higher
thought" and is marked by a strong sense of responsibility for the welfare
of others. It is like taking the responsibility of going to the market to get
someone exactly what he needs, instead of just sitting reflecting on how nice
it would be if he had what he wanted. We take upon ourselves the responsibility
of actually fulfilling others' requirements.
Then we should ask ourselves, "Do I have the ability to benefit all others?"
Obviously we do not. Who has such ability? Only an enlightened being, a buddha.
Why? Because only those who have attained buddhahood are fully developed and
fully separated from limitations: those still in samsara cannot place others
in nirvana. Even sravaka arhants or tenth level bodhisattvas are unable to benefit
others fully, for they themselves still have limitations, but a buddha spontaneously
and automatically benefits all beings with every breath he takes. His state
is metaphorically likened to the drum of Brahma, which automatically resounds
teachings to the world. Or it is like a cloud, that spontaneously takes cooling
shade and life-giving water wherever it goes. To fulfill others' needs we should
seek to place them in the total peace and maturity of buddhahood, and to be
able to do this we ourselves must first gain buddhahood. The state of buddhahood
is an evolutionary product of the bodhimind. The bodhimind is born from the
special thought of universal responsibilitythe thought to benefit others
by oneself. To drink water we must have both the desire to drink and a container
for the water. The wish to benefit others by placing them in buddhahood is like
the desire to drink, and the wish to attain enlightenment oneself in order to
benefit them in this way is like the container. When both are present, we benefit
ourselves and others.
If we hear of the meditations that generate the bodhimind and attempt to practise
them without first refining our minds with the preliminary meditations, it is
very unlikely that we shall make much inner progress. For example, meditating
on compassion without first gaining some experience of the meditations on the
four noble truths, or at least on the truth of suffering, would lead to a merely
superficial understanding. How can we experience mature compassion, the aspiration
to free all beings from suffering, when we do not know the deeper meanings and
levels of suffering that permeate the human psyche? How can we relate to others'
suffering when we do not even know the subtle levels of frustration and tension
pervading our own being? The nature of suffering must be known in order to know
the workings of our own mind; only then shall we be in a position to empathize
with the hearts and minds of others. We must have compassion for ourselves before
we can have it for others.
Through meditation on suffering a certain amount of renunciation or spiritual
stability will be generated. This stability should be guarded and cultivated
by the various methods taught on the initial and intermediate stages of training,
which are the two main steps in approaching the meditations on the bodhimind.
As we progress in our meditations on the suffering nature of being and on the
causes of this suffering, we begin to search for the path leading to transcendence
of imperfection. We meditate upon the precious nature and unique opportunities
of human existence, which makes us appreciate our situation. Then we meditate
upon impermanence and death, which helps us transcend grasping at petty aspects
of life and directs our minds to search for spiritual knowledge. Because spiritual
knowledge is not gained from books or without a cause, its cause must be cultivated,
which means training properly under a fully qualified spiritual master and generating
the practices as instructed.
Merely hearing about the bodhimind is very beneficial because it provides a
seed for the development of the enlightened spirit. However, to cultivate this
seed to fruition requires careful practice. We must progress through the actual
inner experiences of the above-mentioned meditations, and for this we require
close contact with a meditation teacher able to supervise and guide our evolution.
In order for his presence to be of maximum benefit we should learn the correct
attitudes and actions for cultivating an effective guru-disciple relationship.
Then step-by-step the seeds of the bodhimind he plants within us can grow to
full maturity and unfold the lotus of enlightenment within us.
This is but a brief description of the bodhisattva spirit and the methods of
developing it. If it inspires some interest within anyone I shall be most happy.
The basis of the bodhimindlove and compassionis a force that brings
every benefit to both yourself and others, and if this can be transformed into
the bodhimind itself, your every action will become a cause of omniscient buddhahood.
Even if you could practise to the point of even slightly weakening the self-cherishing
attitude I would be very grateful. Without first generating the bodhimind, buddhahood
is completely out of the question. Once the growth of the bodhimind has started,
perfect enlightenment is only a matter of time. We should try to meditate regularly
on death and impermanence and thus become a spiritual practitioner of initial
scope. Then we should develop the meditations on the unsatisfactory nature of
samsara and the three higher trainings, which make us practitioners of medium
scope. Finally, we should give birth to love, compassion, universal responsibility
and the bodhimind, thus entering the path of the practitioner of great scope,
the mahayana, which has full buddhahood as its goal. Relying on the guidance
of a master, we should cultivate the seeds of the bodhimind in connection with
the wisdom of emptiness and for the sake of all that lives quickly actualize
buddhahood. This may not be an easy task, but it has ultimate perfection as
its fruit.
The most important step in spiritual growth is the first: we must begin by making
a decision to avoid evil and cultivate goodness within our stream of being.
On the basis of this fundamental discipline every spiritual quality becomes
possible, even the eventual perfection of buddhahood. Each of us has the potential
to do this, each of us can become a perfect being. All we have to do is direct
our energies at learning and then enthusiastically practising the teachings.
As the bodhimind is the very essence of all the Buddha's teachings we should
make every effort to realize it.