



The Seven Points of

Mind Training

By

The Venerable Khenchen

Thrangu Rinpoche

Geshe Lharampa

Translated by

Maruta Stern

and

Erik Pema Kunsang

Root Text Translated by

Michele Martin

Edited by

Victoria Huckenpahler





Copyright © 2004 by Thrangu Rinpoche.

Root text © 2004 Michele Martin

All rights reserved. No part of this book, either text or art, may be reproduced in any form, electronic or otherwise, without written permission from the Namo Buddha Seminar or Thrangu Rinpoche.

Published by Namo Buddha Publications

P. O. Box 1083, Crestone, CO 81131

Tel.: (719) 256-5539

E-mail: cjohnson@ix.netcom.com

And

Zhyisil Chokyi Ghatsal Publications

P.O. Box 6259, Wellesley St, Auckland, NZ

Tel.: (649) 268 0786

Web site. www.greatliberation.org

ISBN: 1-931571-01-5

Library of Congress: BQ 7805.W35

Dewey Decimal: 294.3/444 20

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the many persons who helped make this book possible. First, we would like to thank Maruta Stern for translating the teachings given in Nepal, Erik Kunsang for translating the teaching given in Maine, and Michele Martin for translating the root text and for rendering extensive editing assistance. We would also like to thank Gaby Hollmann for transcribing and helping to edit the tapes of the retreat.

Note

Words are given as they are pronounced, not as they are spelled. The actual spellings of Tibetan words are given in the Glossary of Tibetan Terms.

We use the convention of B.C.E. (Before Current Era) for what is known as B.C. and C.E. (Current Era) for A.D.

These teachings were given in Nepal at the Namo Buddha Seminar in January, 1993 in Nepal and in Maine, USA in September of 2001.





This book is dedicated to:

His Holiness, the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, Urgen Trinley Dorje. May he live long and prosper and spread the true Dharma throughout the world.





Table of Contents

Foreword ix

An Introduction to Mind Training 1

I. The Preliminaries 11

A. The Visualization for Mind Training Lineage 11

B. The Four Ordinary Foundations 13

1. The Difficulty of Finding a Human Birth 13

2. Death and Impermanence 15

3. The Inherent Tragedies of Samsara 15

4. The Infallible Law of Cause and Effect 16

II. The Main Practice 21

A. Ultimate Bodhichitta 21

1. Analytical Meditation 22

2. Placement Meditation 27

3. Post-meditation 29

B. Relative Bodhichitta 30

1. The Preliminary Practice 33

2. The Main Practice 34

3. The Post-meditation Practice 37

III. Carrying Practice onto the Path 43

A. The General Practice 43

1. Relying on Relative Bodhichitta 44

2. Relying on Ultimate Bodhichitta 48

a. Accumulating Merit 50

b. The Confession of Negative Deeds 50

c. Making Offerings to Gods and Demons 51

d. Making Offerings to Dakinis and Protectors 52

IV. Mind Training in Daily Life 61

A. Practicing Mind Training in this Lifetime 61

1. Power of Determination 64

2. Power of Familiarization 66

3. Power of Virtuous Actions 66

4. Power of Remorse 68

5. Power of Aspiration 70

B. Practicing Mind Training at the Time of Death 72

1. Power of Virtuous Seeds 72

2. Power of Aspiration 72

3. Power of Remorse 73

4. Power of Goodwill 74

5. Power of Familiarization 74

V. Evaluation of Mind Training 79

A. Clinging to self as a measure 79

B. Relying on yourself as a measure 83

C. State of mind as a measure 84

D. Staying on Guard 85

VI. Commitments of Mind Training 87

A. Three General Principles 88

B. Specific Principles 90

VII. Guidelines of Mind Training 101

A. What to Reject 101

B. What to Adopt 104

Conclusion 112

The Root Text of Seven Points of Mind Training 115

Notes 121

The Glossary 127

Glossary of Tibetan Terms 139

Bibliography 141

Index 143

About the Author 145





Foreword

Tibet was non-Buddhist until the eighth century when its King, Trisong Deutsen , asked Padmasambhava to come to Tibet to introduce the Buddhist teachings there. It was Padmasambhava, along with the Indian scholar Shantarakshita , who established Samye Monastery in 779 C.E. To help in this endeavor, the Minister Thonmi Sambhota was sent to India to develop a written script for the Tibetans. Thereafter, numerous Tibetans made perilous journeys to India to bring back the dharma and translate it into Tibetan.

This text on mind training , called lojong in Tibetan, was brought to Tibet by Atisha in the eleventh century. Atisha brought over 100 instructions to Tibet, this particular text being compiled by one of his students who condensed it into the present form of seven points.

The Buddhism of Tibet was a combination of the Shravakayana , Mahayana , and Vajrayana . The Shravakayana sometimes called the Hinayana was practiced in terms of strict personal discipline and the fundamental meditation of Shamatha and Vipashyana. The Mahayana was taught in terms of engaging in an extensive study of the emptiness doctrine of the Middle Way (Skt. Madhyamaka) school and taking the Mahayana vow to help all living beings reach liberation. Helping all beings was accomplished through the practice of the six perfections (Skt. paramitas) (generosity, morality, patience, perseverance, meditative stabilization, and wisdom). The Vajrayana was achieved through yidam practices and the practice of examining mind directly, using Dzogchen or Mahamudra meditation.

The study of texts on the Middle Way concerning empti­ness took a minimum of a year in the monastic college or shedra which, unlike our colleges, involved an eight to ten hour daily study, six to seven days a week, with only a few weeks of vacation a year. The study of the Middle Way was achieved by memorizing the root texts in the morning, then receiving a commentary such as Thrangu Rinpoche has provided in this book in the late morning, and then debating the points of the text in the afternoon. Sometimes these texts were studied not just conceptually, but in conjunction with analytical meditation . At Rumtek monastery in the Nalanda Shedra, for example, Khenpo Tsultrim Rinpoche would teach emptiness in the morning, and in the afternoon would have the students face the outside walls and go into a deep meditation while he would read passages from the sutras on these topics.

Another method for actually practicing the Mahayana is Atisha ’s mind training practice. The purpose of this practice is to overcome the habitual tendency to center the world around ourselves, and thus decrease our ego. The belief in “I” and in what we hold as “mine” causes vast amounts of harm in the world. This habit of acting in terms of “self” and “other” comes from placing ourselves over others in terms of our nation, our race, our community and social class, right down to believing that we are somehow fundamentally better than friends and even family members.

When asked whether he felt anger towards the Chinese for surrounding his camp with machine guns when he was fleeing Tibet in 1959, opening fire on him and hundreds of others, Thrangu Rinpoche replied “No,” because the soldiers were doing what they were supposed to do—shoot at him—and he was doing what he was supposed to do—run for his life.

To reverse this belief in holding our body and our ideas to be extremely important, we must put others ahead of our own selfish, ego-clinging patterns. The Seven Points of Mind Training constitute exactly such a practice, beginning the second we wake up and then carrying the attitude on through-out the day as we eat, work, and socialize with others. Practice ends at night when we examine ourselves to see if we have followed the mind training principles. Finally, Thrangu Rinpoche has suggested that as we fall asleep we should do sending and taking practice.

Mind training is relevant for modern times because we do not need to go to an isolated cave or retreat to engage in it; we can engage in it while doing all the thousands of other things we do every day. This practice has also been condensed to a few dozen instructions which are easy to memorize, and which are actually standards for living our daily life. They tell us how to behave in ordinary circumstances and show us if our ego is increasing or decreasing. In modern life, we do not usually have the time or patience to memorize long texts, so this practice is perfectly adopted for the present day.

These teachings on the Seven Points of Mind Training were given on two different occasions: in 1993 with Maruta Stern translating and also in 2001 in Maine with Erik Kunsang translating. Since Rinpoche emphasized certain points in one teaching and other points in others, we have combined the two.

Clark Johnson, Ph.D.





Atisha





Chapter 1

An Introduction to Mind Training

Why We Should Study Mind Training

In the previous years, I taught the general approach of Buddhist practice and I have also given the instructions on the Shamatha and Vipashyana meditation according to Mahamudra. These teachings are very pithy and profound and they are especially aimed at achieving the ultimate level of reality. There is, however, a way of practice that places more emphasis on the relative or the conventional level of reality. Some of my students have asked, “I practice Mahamudra and it is very beneficial, but every so often strong disturbing emotions well up and the Mahamudra practice doesn’t seem to stop them. What should I do then?” This is a good question to ask because at such times there is a way of practice that emphasizes more the relative truth and this is a teaching known as The Seven Points of Mind Training, which is very useful because it can help us pacify the emotions.

This is not just my personal opinion. The Seven Points have been practiced by the lineage of masters up to the present. They are explained as the merging of two rivers, the Kadampa and Mahamudra instructions, into one style of practice. Gampopa fused the mind training instructions of the Kadampa together with the Mahamudra instructions which he received from the great master Milarepa. In this way, there has been a line of practitioners known as “the golden rosary” or “chain of golden links” which has remained unbroken until the present time. This tradition combines mind training together with the profound instructions of Mahamudra. I consider this long tradition as a very important and a very profound approach.

The Story of Atisha

The teachings on The Seven Points of Mind Training are regarded as contemplations. They were condensed from the words of the Buddha (Skt. sutras) or the treatises (Skt. shastras) by the Indian master Atisha.1 When he first embarked in the dharma, he understood that the attainment of full and complete enlightenment depends upon forming both relative and ultimate bodhichitta. Since he wanted to find out which is the way to make sure that the true bodhichitta dawns within individuals, he fervently prayed to the deity Tara. He had several visions of her; in one vision Tara made the prediction that Atisha should set out to meet three important masters to receive the transmission of how to be a true bodhisattva and develop the bodhichitta attitude. These three masters were Jampey Naljor, Dharma Rakshita,2 and Jowo Serlingpa, the Guru from Serling. Of these three, Dharma Rakshita had an incredible life story and exemplified the bodhisattva ideal perfectly. It is said that he even gave away parts of his own flesh to someone who was needy. Atisha’s other guru was called Jampey Naljor meaning “the yogi of loving-kindness,” because he had that quality of bodhichitta. But the most important of these three was Jowo Serlingpa.

Atisha was born in the present district of Bengal but he went to Nalanda University to study. While studying at Nalanda he heard about Serlingpa. Serling is the Tibetan name for the island of Sumatra and his name means “the master from Sumatra.” In those days the Buddhadharma had spread to Indonesia and there were a great number of ordained monks studying with Serlingpa. He was so well-known that his fame had spread all the way to Nalanda in Northern India. When Atisha heard about Jowo Serlingpa, he made up his mind to go and visit. In those days this was a very difficult journey to undertake. Atisha almost died on the way because of violent storms, but whenever obstacles arose, he made fervent prayers to his chief deity Tara and always practiced loving-kindness and compassion. He somehow arrived and was accepted by Serlingpa, who told him, “Yes, bodhichitta is the most important practice and you must practice mind training. But don’t think you can do it in just a few days. It takes a long time to perfect this practice. You should stay here until you have completed this training.” So Atisha stayed with Serlingpa for twelve years and at the end of that time he had perfected his practice of mind training and returned to India.

Atisha became a great teacher at Nalanda University in Northern India and finally went to Tibet. In the eighth century C.E. Padmasambhava and Shantarakshita had gone to Tibet and established very pure Buddhist teachings. It had been a perfect time to establish Buddhism in Tibet, and the dharma flourished. In the following century, Tibet fell under the influence of King Langdarma who almost obliterated the Buddhist teachings, the lineage of precepts, and its institutions.

Following Langdarma’s assassination in 808 C.E., many teachers emerged and some taught their own dharma by, for example, mixing Buddhist practices with black magic. In one of the districts in western Tibet, there was a king called Yeshe Ö (“wisdom light”), who wanted to determine what the true dharma was and what distortions of the Buddhist teachings were so he invited genuine Buddhist teachers to come to Tibet. After him, his successor Jangchub Ö, (“the light of enlightenment”), had the same intention, and he also invited Buddhist teachers to Tibet.

King Yeshe Ö sent numerous translators to India in order to achieve this aim and many of them died on the way. But a few who succeeded in reaching Atisha gave him the king’s request. Atisha replied, “It is not a matter of personal feelings of going or not going. I will make supplications to my yidam deity and will wait for the reply.” So, he made many supplications to Tara, asking, “Will it be worthwhile for me to go to Tibet?” Tara appeared to him and said, “If you go to Tibet, it will insure that the Buddhadharma again becomes reestablished in that country, but it will also shorten your own life by 10 years.” Atisha replied, “If I live ten years less, it doesn’t matter because what concerns me the most is that the Buddhadharma help living beings. That’s what my life is meant for. So, I will go.” When Atisha arrived in Tibet, he started from the very beginning by teaching about refuge, bodhichitta, and mind training to separate the true teachings from the distortions. Atisha went to Tibet in 1044 C.E. and remained there until the end of his life.

Atisha founded the Kadampa lineage and when he passed on, he left behind three outstanding disciples, the main one being Dromtonpa Gyalwai Jungnae. In general, the Kadampa teachings were divided into three sections. One is the Kadampa philosophical texts, which were held by the Riwo Gendunpa or the Gelugpa tradition. Another is the Kadampa secret oral instructions which were held by Dakpo Lhaje (Gampopa) of the Kagyu tradition. The final one is the key instructions of the sixteen spheres which are practiced by everyone. Of these three, we practice the oral instructions which have passed from Gampopa down to this present time.

Gampopa, prior to meeting Milarepa, had followed the Kadampa teachings and received instructions from that lineage. When he was about to meet Milarepa, Milarepa told his disciples, “Today there will come a true teacher from the Kadampa tradition. Whoever escorts him into my presence will never be reborn into the three lower realms.” Milarepa understood Gampopa’s value from the very start. Also, when Gampopa was leaving after having received all the teachings on Mahamudra, the Six Yogas of Naropa, and so forth, Milarepa escorted him to Garjeling in Gampo where Gampopa began to practice. At this time Milarepa told him that he had had a special dream: from his side a vulture flew forth and landed on the Lhachi Mountain Peak and became surrounded by numerous golden geese, each of which was surrounded by 500 more geese. When they all flew on high, the whole area turned a golden color. Milarepa said, “Even though I am a follower of the yogi tradition, an eminent disciple of mine will fuse the Kadampa and Mahamudra lineage.”

The teachings on mind training have been articulated in various ways. There is one set of teachings called Mind Training in Eight Verses and another called Mind Training like a Peacock Overcoming Poison. There are many other instructions like these. The one that is most popular is known as The Seven Points of Mind Training, which is what we will actually practice after having received instructions. The Seven Points of Mind Training was written by a master called Chekawa Yeshe Dorje,3 who went through many difficulties to receive these teachings.

The Bodhisattva Vow

The bodhisattva vow constitutes a major part of the Mahayana path. One of the main ways to accomplish this vow is through the practice of mind training. This mind training , or lojong in Tibetan, that we are studying is composed of seven precepts whose purpose is to develop a feeling of love, compassion, and bodhichitta for all living beings. Usually, we tend to think of ourselves as really important. If we have any kind of suffering, we think that it is unbearable and that nobody else suffers as we do. We want to have happiness for ourselves and do not really consider that others feel the same. But the foundation for love, compassion, and bodhichitta is to think that others are equal to us and that we are able to exchange ourselves for them. Actually to do this we have to rid ourselves of this notion that only we are important, that only our suffering is unbearable, and that our desire for joy is of paramount importance. How do we train our mind to do this? The first step is to realize: “If I feel that I am important and that my suffering is unbearable, then other beings must have the same attitude. When they suffer, they too must feel that this suffering is “unbearable.” This is the meaning of training the mind.

We may ask how Mahamudra meditation and mind training are related. There are two kinds of truths, conventional and ultimate . Mahamudra is a very high level teaching which concerns the ultimate truth. But sometimes we are unable to realize that ultimate meaning, and because of this, various things happen. Sometimes our meditation goes very well, but at other times our diligence decreases, our pride increases, and our meditation doesn’t work the way it should. During these down times, the instructions of mind training are very good. Often people come to me and say: “I really want to practice dharma . I really want to study. I want to meditate but it seems I am very lazy and cannot do it.” For times like this, it is very helpful to contemplate again and again the instructions of mind training. In fact, if we can do this over and over, then the diligence which has decreased will again increase, as will faith. This is what the mind training precepts are for: the times when these obstacles, called “inner obstacles of the mind,” occur. When this happens, contemplate these thoughts over and over again. When diligence is decreasing and pride and jealousy are increasing, all of the mind instructions help. Once we have contemplated them repeatedly, then we can again go back to Mahamudra practice.

Atisha formulated about a hundred different mind training instructions. In Advice from a Spiritual Friend it states that Geshe Chekawa , who inherited the teachings from a disciple of one of Atisha’s disciples, put these instructions into the form of the seven points of mind training.

The first part of the mind training is a presentation of the preliminaries, which are the bases for dharma practice. In this text, the preliminaries are divided into two parts: the contemplation at the beginning of the preliminaries, i.e., what we must visualize and think of when we start, and then the actual explanation of the preliminaries.

Questions

Question: You talked about the relationship between this practice and The Wheel of Sharp Weapons.

Rinpoche: This text and The Wheel of Sharp Weapons are basically the same instructions, but are a little different in the meditation instructions. Both are very powerful, as the title suggests, really forceful in getting rid of negativities.

Question: Do the inner obstacles arise because of past bad karma? Could inner obstacles be purified through purification practice?

Rinpoche: Inner obstacles do not come from previous karma. What comes from previous karma are such things as physical suffering and being born in poverty. Inner obstacles, which are various negative conceptual thoughts, come >from previous negative habits of thinking. What does purify inner obstacles is, for instance, contemplation on the four thoughts which turn the mind , because inner obstacles are very, very old habits. Doing the four contemplations will gradually change the negative habits of mind and that will clear away the inner obstacles.

Question: When anything happens, negative or positive, to what extent does this depend on karma? For instance, if I am in a train accident, it is my karma, or could it also be the bad repair of the train? Or if something positive happens, like I find money and am happy, is that due simply to the fact that somebody lost this money?

Rinpoche: Not everything is karma. There are two things to consider: your previous karma and the immediate circum­stances. Things like our physical suffering, or whether we are wealthy or impoverished, depend upon previous karma. Other things, like our state of mind , are more dependent upon circumstances than upon karma. For instance, if we have good Dharma friends with us, then it might be that our mind is in a good place for practicing and we are quite happy most of the time, whereas when we are around people who are not good for us, then our state of mind will not be good either, so we will be quick to become angry. That is called “the circumstance.” It functions more like barche, which could sometimes be an accident and sometimes a misfortune of some kind. It is based more upon immediate circumstances than upon karma. An airplane accident is karma, the karma of all the victims coming together at one time. It was their karma that they had all gathered together in that airplane. Another example: a man in India wants to get on the bus but doesn’t have one rupee, so he can’t get on. The bus crashes and everybody dies. It was his karma not to get on that bus, based upon the fact that he didn’t have that one rupee. That was his karma.

Question: It is very difficult to distinguish between circum­stances and karma. For instance, if a brick drops on my head or my lama passes away, is it my karma or is it also his karma to pass away?

Rinpoche: If a rock falls on your head, it is karma. If it just falls from nowhere and you didn’t know about it beforehand, it is karma. However, if you pick up that rock and think, “I must build something with it,” then it is not karma. With your lama, one cannot tell whether it is karma or not. It might be, but he may have had a reason to pass into nirvana at that time, in which case it is not karma. Did he die because of your karma? No, it is not your karma. Now you don’t have a lama because he has finished teaching you, so it will be up to you whether you practice or not. That’s your karma. Because the lama has passed away, he is finished. All the Kagyu lamas have passed away. All lamas die, all living beings die; there is nobody who won’t die.

Question: An aspect of Buddhist practice that has been getting more attention in the West these days is social activism in which you bring your practice out into the community to make a positive change. There has been a growing interest in the socially active aspects of going from your meditation seat into the community and bringing about positive change. Some of the instructions of mind training could be interpreted as a sort of withdrawal from social activism, so that others are not given the benefit and opportunity of dharma.

Rinpoche: If everybody would practice these mind training instructions, it would really be good for everyone, including the community in general. For instance, it is beneficial for oneself, and if that person over there is doing it, then it is beneficial both for that person and everybody around. Mind training is very good for individuals and communities.





Eight Freedoms and Ten Riches

The Eight Freedoms (Tib. dal wa gye)

The first four freedoms involve the human realm.

1. Not holding wrong views

2. Not being born in a primitive border land

3. Not being born in an age without a Buddha present

4. Not having all the physical faculties complete, such as being deaf or mute

The next four freedoms involve the non-human realms where attaining enlightenment is not very possible.

5. Not being born in the hell realm

6. Not being born a hungry ghost

7. Not being born an animal

8. Not being born a long living god

The Ten Riches or endowments (Tib. jor wa chu))

These ten conditions make it conducive to practice.

1. Taking human birth

2. Being born in a Buddhist place

3. Having intact senses

4. Being free from extreme negative karma

5. Having faith in the Dharma

6. A Buddha has appeared

7. The Buddha has given teachings

8. The Buddha's teachings continue to exist

9. There are people still following the Buddha teachings

10. Having compassionate feelings for others





Chapter 2

The Practice of the Preliminaries

I. THE PRELIMINARIES

I prostrate to the Great Compassionate One.

1. First, train in the preliminaries.

We begin lojong practice with a visualization and a prayer.

A. The Visualization for the Mind Training Lineage

In yidam practice of the Vajrayana we usually meditate, visualizing ourselves in the form of a deity or yidam. In mind training practice we just see ourselves in our ordinary form, but on the crown of our head we visualize our root guru who is the source of all our blessings . First, we visualize on the crown of our head a lotus flower which is untouched by any of the faults of samsara; on top of that we visualize a moon disc, and on top of that we visualize our root guru with a smiling face.

We visualize our root guru either in his or her actual form or in the form of Gampopa or Atisha , whomever we are most comfortable with and in whom we can generate the most faith. It is very important to visualize him or her with a friendly, smiling face and a resplendent body. The lama has great love and compassion for us, so the lama’s face is seen with a beautiful and magnificent smile. To create great merit, we visualize the lama’s body as being very brilliant and resplendent. We think of the lama as having great loving-kindness and compassion for all living beings and wishing that they all be free >from suffering. This compassion and love is not limited to particular individuals, but includes all living beings. In this way, the lama’s mind abides naturally in the sphere of reality (Skt. dharmadhatu).

Because it is also important to think of the lineage of lamas that came before our root guru, we think that the root guru embodies all the lamas of the lineage as well. There are three basic ways to visualize the root and lineage lamas: one is to visualize the root guru with all the lineage lamas stacked above him; another is known as “the great gathering,” in which we visualize the root guru with all the lineage lamas surrounding him like a great crowd; a third way, called “the precious way in which all are subsumed into one,” is to visualize the root guru as the essence of all the lineage lamas who are subsumed into him or her.

While visualizing the lamas, we keep in mind all the enlightened qualities of kindness and compassion possessed by our root guru. While doing so, we supplicate our lama. Sometimes we say prayers to the lineage lamas, asking for blessings from our lama. We pray that we can achieve the kind of loving-kindness for all living beings and the compassionate wish for all of them to be free from suffering which are held by our root guru. We pray that these qualities of the lama are born in us as well. Then with great faith and devotion to our lama, we say this prayer:

I prostrate to the Great Compassionate One

Whose form is the compassion of the Buddha and his children.

You are the incomparable lord of dharma with whom any relationship is meaningful.

My root guru, you embody the life-breath of this lineage.

I pray to you from the depths of my heart.

Bless me with the full development of love, compassion

bodhichitta ,

And the ability to dismiss and dispel (all obstacles).

With this prayer we then visualize the lama coming down through the top of our head and entering a tent in our heart where he resides. This causes faith and devotion to increase. It is very important at the beginning of any meditative session to generate great faith and devotion in the lama and to ask for blessings in this way.

Having received the blessings and generated great faith and devotion, we sit with our body lengthened and simply pay attention to the passing in and out of the breath . We don’t try to regulate the breath, but breathe naturally, staying aware of the breath going out and coming back in. We count the in-breath and out-breath as one. We do not count out loud but are just aware. On our rosary we pay attention to the passing of the breath in and out for twenty-one counts.

We should do this very carefully because this is said to be the vessel for Shamatha practice. We should just be very mindful of the breath going in and out and not consciously think, “Now it is going out; now it is coming in,” or the other way around. Very carefully and mindfully we pay attention to counting to twenty-one and then starting at one again. It is very important to make a container for Shamatha practice.

Above is the visualization for the preliminaries. Now comes the actual explanation of the preliminaries, which begins with the contemplation of the four thoughts that turn the mind , also known as the four ordinary foundations.

B. The Four Ordinary Foundations

1. The Difficulty of Finding a Human Birth

The sutras are primarily concerned with the instructions on how to reflect upon impermanence. In addition to reflection on impermanence, the great siddhas of India added three additional reflections: the preciousness of the human body comprising the eight freedoms and ten riches, the consequences of karmic actions, and the negative quality of cyclic existence or samsara. First, we all have this incredibly valuable human body which is much better than an animal body. Of course, an animal can behave nicely and have a kind attitude, but can an animal receive teachings and reflect upon them? Can an animal practice deep meditation or samadhi? Can an animal liberate itself from the causes of samsara? There is no way for an animal to receive teachings as a human can. Not only do human beings have the ability to listen and to understand the teachings, but they also practice intelligently and understand what they are doing. When you think about it, this is of immense value. The preciousness of the human existence is not just a belief, it is really true. If we reflect upon this, then there is an actual reason to rejoice in the immense wealth of having a precious human body.

Milarepa 5 said that one does not really need to read about the four ordinary foundations in a book; one only needs to look around and see that impermanence is obvious everywhere. We have the precious human body now, but it does not last. Everything is impermanent. It is clear that we have reached a very special circumstance now in having this precious human life. We can see that this precious human birth is a great opportunity. But if we do not use it, then it is a complete waste. What a shame to squander this opportunity! We can see that a human birth is very precious and that it is important to use it as such. So the first contemplation is on the precious human existence and all its possibilities.

2. Death and Impermanence

The second contemplation is on death and impermanence. If we sit and think about death and impermanence, we are bound to become a little sad. Most people think it is not a good idea to sit around and think about something which will upset us. But actually, it is a good idea because if we do not think now about death and impermanence, one day they will definitely arrive anyway and then we will not be prepared. Not knowing what to do and what will come next, we will experience great suffering, whereas if we start thinking about impermanence now, while we still have time to find skillful means to deal with it, then later we will not be caught unaware. Even though in the short term the contemplation of death and impermanence might cause discomfort, in the long term it will actually save us from greater suffering.

3. The Infallible Law of Cause and Effect (Karma)

The third contemplation is on the infallibility of karma, which is cause and effect. The word “karma” is often understood as a fate that is impossible to change or alter. But that is not the Buddhist concept of karma. The Buddha taught that one can do something about one’s karma. Happiness and suffering are created by karmic actions; they are the results of actions; and these actions are the result of our choice of what we do. We cannot change the results immediately, but we can still change the new causes that we create with our behavior.

All living beings want to avoid suffering, but we need to understand that negative karmic actions cause suffering, so if we try our best to avoid creating new negative actions, then their effect which is suffering will diminish. Living beings also want happiness, but we need to understand that wholesome or positive karmic actions bring on happiness. In this way, karma is not out of reach, because we can do something about how karma will ripen for us later on. As practitioners we should definitely take it upon ourselves to avoid what is unwholesome and to do what is meaningful and good.

So in this contemplation we contemplate that if we do virtuous actions, then the effect or result is happiness; if we create a cause of non-virtue by performing a negative act, then the result will be suffering. So there is a way of overcoming suffering in life, and this is by creating virtuous causes which can only arise by pursuing a path of dharma.

If we have doubts about these four contemplations, it is said that it is very helpful to recite prayers like The Seven-Branch Prayer in which we take refuge, generate bodhichitta , confess, dedicate the merit, and so on. When doubts arise, this is a very important and beneficial practice.

4. The Inherent Tragedies of Samsara

The fourth contemplation is on the inherent tragedies of samsara. The inherent nature of samsara is that there is always something wrong and this is true for everyone. All living beings suffer in one way or another. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We don’t have to continue suffering. We can overcome not only the causes of suffering, but we can overcome the entire environment of suffering, which is samsara, by making use of the instructions of mind training on the relative level and the instructions of Mahamudra on the ultimate level. Reflecting upon the negative quality of samsaric existence inspires us to want to overcome suffering and to attain liberation and be free; it makes us want to put more energy into mind training and Mahamudra practice.

Milarepa said, “I do not study what is written with black ink.” Rather, Milarepa studied everything as it actually is. We can also just look around and see how things are. All living beings are born, grow up, age, become sick, and pass away. We can also observe the consequences of actions and what is painful in all different ways. All this is observable if we pay attention. But we can also see what is truly valuable: a precious human body, which can lead us to embrace a spiritual path by understanding what it means to cultivate spiritual qualities and to practice. Such a person is very precious. When we acknowledge that we have this preciousness, we can rejoice in that. Also, we will be inspired not to leave it at that, but to put it to use with a lot of energy, enthusiasm, and perseverance. That is a special way of studying the dharma through understanding how things are.

From time to time a student will say to me, “I like the dharma and am interested in practicing, but I feel that it is difficult for me to practice. I cannot really get into it. What should I do?” I suggest, “Spend some time reflecting upon the four thoughts that change the mind—the precious human body, impermanence, karma, and suffering.” This is not like training in Shamatha and Vipashyana, but more a reflection, thinking about how things are: Are they permanent or impermanent? We spend time working with these four topics in our mind. These will cause inspiration, in which case we feel that it is not difficult to practice. This is why the first of the seven points of mind training is the preliminaries, or the foundation, for any and all practices that follow. If we have that foundation of having reflected on the four thoughts that turn the mind, we are then able to proceed with every practice that comes afterwards.

When we train in the teachings of the seven points of mind training, we still have some problems. Sometimes these problems can take the form of happiness, success, and good times and sometimes the form of difficulties, physical and mental pain, and misfortune. Success becomes an obstacle when we are affluent, have lots of satisfaction, and everything goes well. This causes a tendency to forget the dharma practice because everything is fine; we just go along and get caught up in it, forgetting our usual practice. That’s a problem and, therefore it is called “the obstacle of happiness.” The other obstacle comes when we experience misfortune, failure, or physical and mental pain. We could also forget dharma practice then because we are too caught up in being depressed, and so forth. As a matter of fact, we can use both situations for mind training and in that way become more even-minded so that we are neither depressed during difficulties nor carried-away by success. In this way mind training lifts us during difficulties and grounds us during success.

Questions

Question: You said we should visualize our root guru either in his or her own form, or as Gampopa or Atisha . I always visualize him either in his own form or in the form of Vajradhara . Should we visualize him in this case as Gampopa or Atisha?

Rinpoche: There are several ways of visualizing one’s root guru. For instance, it is fine to visualize him as Vajradhara because Vajradhara, having all the qualities of the Buddha, is stainless. One can also visualize one’s own root guru as he or she is if one has complete faith and confidence in him or her. But sometimes because we are very familiar with our lama, we can lack complete faith and devotion and, therefore, tend to see faults in our root guru. When this happens, we can visualize the root guru in the form of Gampopa or Atisha , because these teachings of mind training come from Atisha, who passed them down to Gampopa. These individuals lived far in the past, so never having met them we cannot possibly see a fault in them.

Question: As a student new to Buddhism I have not developed a strong connection to a root guru. How does one practice in that case?

Rinpoche: Well, the one for whom you feel faith, devotion, and respect no matter which individual, should be your object of refuge. That is whom you visualize.

Question: You taught that it is necessary to supplicate the guru with deep devotion, as well as to follow his instructions. When the root guru dies, do we continue this practice to create openness and further devotion, further commitment, or is there some actual living quality of the root guru? Is there a Buddha-field that the root guru is part of, a sort of energy field, or does the practice just help us follow the instructions more clearly, more devotedly?

Rinpoche: Whether your lama has passed away or is still living doesn’t really make a lot of difference because the point is the strength of your faith, devotion, and prayers. For instance, Milarepa often prayed to Marpa and many of his spiritual songs start with prayers to Marpa, though at the time Marpa had already passed away. It is said that if one has enough faith, sacred relics (Tib. ringsel) will issue even from a dog’s tooth! This refers to the story of an old woman in Tibet whose son was a great trader and was always going to India. The mother was very old, and when her son was to go to India she said, “Oh son, you are always going off to India. It is such a wonderful place. The Buddha was there, as well as many great saints. It would mean a lot to me if you would bring me back some kind of relic from this holy land.” The son went off to India, had a lot of work to do, and totally forgot the relic. When he returned, his mother asked, “What did you bring me?” The son said, “Oh. I’m so sorry. I forgot all about it.” The next time he went she said again, “Please don’t forget. Please bring me something from India.” Again he got really busy and forgot it, leaving her very disappointed. Then came the third trip. Once more the son had so much to do that he forgot. The fourth time the mother said, “If you forget again, I will know that you don’t really love me at all; in fact, if you don’t bring me something this time, I am going to die in front of you.” He went and again became very busy and forgot. But this time, just before reaching home, he remembered and thought, “Oh no! I completely forgot. What am I going to do? My poor old mother! She is going to die in front of me.” He was really in despair and looked around frantically for something to give her. Seeing the dried up skull of a dog lying there, he approached it, thinking: “I just have to get her something. She is going to die in front of me if I don’t. I can’t let this happen.” So he took a tooth out of the dog’s skull, wrapped it very nicely, and went home saying, “Look mother! You are really lucky today. You are very fortunate. I have brought you a tooth of the Buddha himself.” His mother was so pleased that she put it on the shrine, made many offerings, and prayed to it. One day ringsel came from that tooth. Now ringsel can be produced from the tooth of the Buddha, but not from a dog’s tooth. So it was her great faith and devotion and the power of mind which made that happen.





Chapter 3

Arousing Bodhichitta

II. THE MAIN PRACTICE

The main part of the mind training practice is concerned with bodhichitta . Bodhichitta is a Sanskrit word which literally means “awakened mind.” It refers to the desire to help all living beings achieve complete happiness. Living beings, by the way, refers to all beings who have a mind, so this includes animals as well as beings we cannot see, such as hungry ghosts, jealous gods, and beings in the god and hell realms. Generally, there are two kinds of bodhichitta: relative bodhichitta and ultimate bodhichitta . Usually, it is taught that ultimate bodhichitta is more important than relative bodhichitta . However, because we are beginners in the mind training teachings, it is taught that relative bodhichitta is most important, while ultimate bodhichitta is only briefly mentioned. The practice begins with a brief teaching on ultimate bodhichitta. We begin with visualizing the lama as explained above, reciting prayers to him or her that we might receive blessings , and counting the breath twenty-one times so that we become proper receptacles for training in ultimate bodhichitta.

A. Ultimate bodhichitta

We begin with ultimate bodhichitta followed by relative bodhichitta. The reason Chekawa Yeshe Dorje decided on this order is because relative bodhichitta is the desire that forms the noble intention to proceed with developing ultimate bodhichitta. The dualistic mind is not very stable and to work with something that is so unstable is very difficult to do. Wouldn’t it be better to stabilize the mind in real meditation or samadhi? To train in absolute bodhichitta first and later train in relative bodhichitta based on the stability achieved? Then relative bodhichitta will be more lucid, clear, and steady so that progress is more likely. That is the reason why absolute bodhichitta is discussed first.

Generally speaking, there are two types of meditative training: analytical meditation and resting meditation. We usually begin with analytical meditation, which is inquiring about the nature of phenomena, beginning with external phenomena as explained in The Heart Sutra with the statement, “No eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue” and so forth.” When we examine the nature of phenomena, we fail to find any phenomenon which truly exists, so everything is regarded as dream-like. This then leads to the first instruction:

1. Analytical Meditation

2. Regard all phenomena as dreams.

The word “dharma,” here translated as “phenomenon,” is used in many different contexts. Sometimes it refers to teachings and sometimes to a particular practice or a specific quality that we try to cultivate in our practice. But in this particular context, the word “dharma” doesn’t mean the teachings, rather it means any perceivable object or entity, such as an external sight, sound, smell, and so forth. These are not as they seem: they are visible or perceivable but not truly existing, just like dreams. Therefore, first understand that all phenomena are dream-like and then train in regarding them as being so.

I don’t feel that it is necessary to spend a lot of time in this teaching discussing emptiness and whether things are real and concrete or do not exist as real and solid as they seem. As a matter of fact, they can be taken apart into smaller and smaller parts until they are atoms. However, even the smallest particles cannot be established to truly exist as something concrete and real. This can be arrived at through intelligent reasoning from the Middle Way philosophy. Using Middle Way logic, it is possible to show that all phenomena are not as real as they seem. This method proceeds by proving that every view we hold about reality can be disproved. Another approach is to establish how things are, rather than disproving their reality.

The nature of the emptiness of phenomena can be illustrated with the example of a dream. Every one of us dreams at night, and while we dream, it seems that there are objects, sounds, and so forth, which are exactly the same as they are while we are awake. We see hills, forests, houses, people, and so forth, during our dreams, but these phenomena are not as they seem. They appear to us, but they are not solid even though we can hit them, fall off them, and so on. Is everything we see in our dreams there? No. When we dream of a house or mountain, there is no real house or mountain in the room. In other words, while not existing, these phenomena still appear. How is it possible that something that doesn’t really exist still appears to us? The answer is that it is like a dream, when we see, hear, feel textures, taste, smell, and so forth though these things are not really there. How should we regard the phenomena in our waking state? As empty just as in a dream. We, therefore, should “Regard all dharmas as dreams.”

Sometimes we contemplate that all outer phenomena—trees, houses and mountains—are not real, but resemble appearances in a dream . We also contemplate that the inner phenomenon of our mind , which perceives all outer phenomena, is also not real. Rather, our mind is empty of inherent existence. To engage in the two contemplations that outer and inner phenomena resemble a dream, we first think that everything we see in the animate and inanimate world is like the appearances arising in a dream and that our sensations of these phenomena—smell, taste, touch, sight, hearing, and feeling—are also like the sensations felt in a dream.

To repeat, we think that everything we perceive outside of us is not real; it is like a dream or an illusion. If everything out there is just a dream or illusion, then these phenomena must come from the mind . The next thought is, “Well, is the mind itself real?” To determine if mind is a real, solid entity or empty just like outer phenomena, we can, employ the Mahamudra or Dzogchen instructions to look directly at our mind. This practice of looking at mind is explained in the next instruction:

3. Investigate the nature of unborn awareness.

Looking nakedly at the essential nature of mind , we find that mind is not established as any “thing” at all. This means that if we look for the mind, we find it has no color or shape, or any other definable characteristic which an object does. Since objects have a beginning, we may wonder, “Where does the mind start? Is there a point of origin for the mind?” Again if we look, we cannot find a point of origin for the mind. Other than thinking that it is like the wind moving in the sky, there is nothing to indicate what it is like. Since there is no place where it begins, it is said that mind is unborn.

If mind is unborn, we may then ask, “So where is it now?” Examining the present mind to see whether it is somewhere outside the body, we find that there is no place where it resides in the objects that we sense or see. It is not separate from the body, so we ask, “Well, is it inside?” But we cannot find a particular place where it is located in the body. Since mind does not have a color or a location, we therefore say that it is by nature empty.

Finally we wonder, “Where does mind stop when thoughts stop? And where do thoughts go?” Again, there is no place we can find where thoughts end. The mind does not attach itself to an outer object and stop there. There is no origin of mind, it does not dwell anywhere, and it does not end anywhere because it is empty. So the mind is without birth, abiding, and cessation. This awareness can’t be found. This contemplation of looking for the mind, trying to find if it has any reality or not, is a very important practice to do over and over again until we are convinced that the nature of mind is emptiness.

So, first we examine outer phenomena to establish that they are like a dream ; then we look at mind itself and see that it is without birth, abiding, and cessation. From this we establish that the inner phenomena of mind are also empty. But this thought that mind and phenomena are empty is just another thought, so now we must look at the person who has that thought with the next instruction.

Let us examine what the perceiver is, what we call “me.” Actually, when we look for it, we cannot find it anywhere; we fail to find it, and yet at the same time it seems that there is someone. This lack of finding is here called “unborn,” which means it doesn’t come about nor does it exist right now; it didn’t arise and it doesn’t abide anywhere in the present. This is exactly what we need to look into in order to find that this also does not really exist, which is called “empty of essence” or “empty of identity.”

Earlier, two different types of meditation were mentioned: analytic meditation,11 and resting meditation. Analytical meditation which uses rational thinking, is not the method meant in “investigate the nature of unborn awareness.” Here, the instruction means to look at unborn awareness. This is like observing birds, just seeing what they are doing. Where do they live? How do they get there? How do they fly about? What do they eat? Inquiry is simply taking a look by observing. In exactly the same way, we take a look at the mind and ask: Where does it dwell? How does it behave? What does it look like? What color does it have? What shape does it have? And where is it? How does it move? How does it stay? And so forth. This type of inquiry is not intellectual.

From time to time we have the feeling that the mind is steady and remains calm. Then when we take a close look at it, what is it really that remains calm now? We fail to find that there is someone or something that remains. In the same way, sometimes we notice that there is thinking, and when we look into the identity of what is it that thinks, we fail to find that there is a thinker, someone or something actually thinking the thought. This is not some kind of rationalization, but something we see when we look. This is what is being taught here in the statement: “Investigate the nature of unborn awareness.” Unborn here is a synonym for absence of identity.

4. Even the antidote is released in its ground.

We begin with the belief that everything is solid and real. Then we develop the belief that this is incorrect and everything is just emptiness or like a dream . This second belief, however, developed by the previous instruction, is not real either. To illustrate this point, Shantideva gave the following example: If you were dreaming that you had a son and the son died, you would think, “I had a son and now he is gone.” You might think that the thought that he is gone is an antidote to the thought that he existed. But in fact this can’t be correct because none of it is real: it is all like a dream. So the thought that you had a son was not real, and the thought that your son had died was also unreal. That is what “the antidote released in its ground” means. When you begin to believe that everything is emptiness, then you have to let that thought go, too. You have to look at the one who is thinking that thought and realize that this one, too, is not real.

In his commentary on The Seven Points of Mind Training, called The Great Path of Awakening, Jamgon Kongtrul said that this teaching is explained as conceptual meditation because examination of outer objects as having no birth, no abiding, and no cessation is done through using our intellect.

As previously mentioned, there are two ways of meditation training: the analytical meditation of a scholar, a pandita, and the resting meditation of a kusulu, a simple meditator. Analyti­cal meditation of a pandita involves questioning, inquiring, and quoting the scriptures from masters of the past. To gain some certainty about how things are, we need to look at external things to see how they are, and we need to look within to see how our mind is. We even look at the remedies against the usual belief about outer and inner phenomena. As we reach some kind of conviction, all we can see is direct experience. Then comes the next training called “resting meditation of a simple meditator.” The above instruction concerns analytical meditation, while the next instruction concerns resting meditation of direct perception.

2. Placement Meditation

5. Rest within the all-basis, the essential nature.

What does the all-basis, the alaya, mean? We have the eight consciousnesses:12 the five sensory consciousnesses of sight, hearing, smelling, tasting, and body sensation; the sixth mental consciousness, the seventh afflicted consciousness, and the eighth alaya consciousness. We do not “rest in the conscious­nesses” because the consciousnesses are externally oriented. We don’t rest in the sixth mental consciousness which is thinking mind, engaged in thoughts of the past, present, and future. These six consciousnesses are sometimes present and sometimes not. For example, our eye consciousness will not be present or functioning when our eyes are closed or it is completely dark. Does this mean that when the consciousnesses are not present, we die or turn into a stone? No, because there is an ongoing sense of the present and a lucid knowing quality of mind. This knowing, or awareness, is the eighth alaya or all-ground consciousness. The alaya consciousness has the quality of being always present and the quality of knowing. The quality of knowing or luminosity (Tib. selwa) is always there whether we are awake or asleep or dreaming; it is a conscious quality that is never interrupted.

I once had an operation in which they gave me an anesthetic. I experienced the sensory consciousnesses all being interrupted and there was no physical sensation and at the same time there was this lucid quality which was not interrupted. I think this was the eighth consciousness and this is what we need to rest in.

There are two aspects to the eighth alaya consciousness: the consciousness aspect called the kunzhi namshe in Tibetan, and the wisdom aspect called the kunzhi yeshe. What is the difference between these two aspects? Even though the wisdom quality of the eighth consciousness is ongoing and unimpeded, we may not be aware of the emptiness of phenomena. Not realizing this characteristic of phenomena is called the consciousness or namshe aspect of the alaya. This ignorance forms the foundation for the other consciousnesses. However, with meditative training we see that even though there is no entity there, (i.e., when we look for this consciousness, nothing is there), present at the same time is this conscious wakefulness, the wisdom aspect of the eighth consciousness. Our task as a practitioner is not only to rest in the nature of this alaya, but also to be aware of its nature.

When we use the word alaya , we usually mean this eighth consciousness. But in this particular instruction, to rest in the nature of alaya points to our basic Buddha nature (Skt. tathagata­garbha). This instruction means looking without any conceptualization at the nature of mind . This Buddha nature is complete simplicity; it is the union of emptiness and luminosity. It is luminosity because it has the characteristic of wisdom, and yet it is not an object or thing. The nature of this luminous clarity is emptiness. So this is the practical application of the meditation: just to look at the nature of mind, at that unity of clarity and emptiness.

In the meditation on ultimate bodhichitta , we look at the nature of mind and find there is nothing at all that we have to think about or fabricate. We do not have to think that something that exists does not exist; nor that something that does not exist, does exist. We just look at the nature of mind.

Once we have finished the looking, we can recite the Seven Branch Prayer as we did in the preliminaries. After practicing meditation on relative bodhichitta (the analytical meditation) followed by meditation on ultimate bodhichitta (resting meditation ), we must dedicate the merit of this practice.

3. Post-meditation

6. In post-meditation, regard all beings as illusions.

The first four instructions already given in this chapter explain how we should engage in the analytical meditation training of a pandita as well as doing resting meditation of a simple meditator, a kusulu. Once we understand this, we persevere in this training and meditate more and more. But, a conflict can arise. A practitioner might think, “If I meditate, then I can’t work and do my job. And if I do my job, I can’t practice.” This is why there is this fifth instruction distinguishing between the meditation period and the post-meditation period. During the meditation session, we train in analytical meditation or we simply do resting meditation. During the post-meditation stage we are involved in activities, such as going to work, having conversations, and walking about. How do we deal with these activities? When things go well and there are no problems, we become very excited and happy, and when things do not go well and there are problems, we worry a lot and wonder, “Oh no! What is going to happen? This is terrible,” and so forth. Rather than reacting to these events we should train in the understanding we have from mind training, namely, that whatever we perceive is like a magical illusion. So the reaction of being excited about success or depressed about failure will diminish when our external world is seen as a magical illusion.

This completes the teaching on absolute bodhichitta. In summary: The first instruction was about external phenomena, “Regard all phenomena as dreams.” The second instruction is about inner phenomena, the perceiving mind, “Investigate the nature of unborn awareness.” The third instruction is, “Even the antidote is released in its ground.” Then we come to the resting meditation of the kusulu, “Rest within the all-basis, the essential nature.” Finally, the instruction is on how to practice during daily activities, “In post-meditation, regard all beings as illusions.” In this way, absolute bodhichitta is practiced using these five instructions.

B. Relative Bodhichitta

In the teachings on relative bodhichitta , there are three parts: the preliminary part, the main practice, and the post-meditation practice.

In The Seven Points of Mind Training we are in the section on the main practice, which has two parts: absolute and relative bodhichitta. In these teachings the relative aspect is emphasized more strongly, because relative bodhichitta is of immediate importance for the practitioner. It is what occurs in daily life. We train in meditation to realize the emptiness of external phenomena and the emptiness of internal phenomena. However, in mind training, we act as if there is a personal identity and as if other persons are also real. So relative bodhichitta is making believe that there is a self and others.

We begin with a special instruction from the Master of Sumatra, Jowo Serlingpa. He said that when you plant the seed of a flower in a very nice and clean ground, the seed will grow very poorly. If, however, you plant it in moist and dirty ground enriched with manure, the seed will grow well. In the same way, just as a seed grows in dirty soil, to realize emptiness and develop an altruistic motivation, the bodhisattva will grow and progress in confused and messy situations.

When it comes to promoting the bodhisattva’s frame of mind, we need to consider two attitudes most people hold: one is called “goodwill” and the other, “ill-will.” It seems most people alternate between these two. “Goodwill” means that out of a good heart one wants to help and further what is valuable, beneficial, and helpful. But sometimes we have ill-will and want to hurt and harm others. When it comes to engendering the bodhisattva attitude, it seems like goodwill is more helpful than ill-will, so as a practitioner we are advised to cultivate the attitude of goodwill as much as possible and to diminish and reduce our ill-will. Why? Because when we become used to an attitude, sooner or later it manifests; sooner or later it expresses itself not only in words but in actions as well. When we consider what beings actually need, it is not ill-will at all; they need goodwill. For someone aspiring to be a bodhisattva, it is suggested that they cultivate and maintain goodwill and try to diminish ill-will.

Another reason is that goodwill helps both others and oneself. If one expresses goodwill, it immediately helps others and indirectly, sooner or later, there is feedback that helps oneself. So it also helps oneself to have a benevolent frame of mind to help others. Ill-will, on the other hand, immediately hurts others and indirectly hurts oneself as well.

Now, where do ill-will and goodwill spring from? They spring >from either regarding ourselves as being most important or from regarding others as most important. If we look at the feeling, “I am important!” It can become the basis for many problems. If one regards oneself as being more important than others, sooner or later one will express this in ways that are harmful to others. But regarding others as important will sooner or later be beneficial for others and for oneself, too. Therefore we should try our best to develop the attitude of thinking of others as more important than oneself.

This is where mind training enters because one’s basic attitude can be remedied with mind training. Why? Because predominant habits of considering oneself as more important than others can be changed: we can train in developing the attitude of wanting to help others and in diminishing the idea that we are more important than others. This is very beneficial. We can train in that further and further so that finally there is not much self-importance left in our own mind but we have the remaining attitude of wanting to benefit others. This is the real basis for mind training.

The main practice of mind training is forming the bodhisattva attitude which eliminates the tendency to treasure oneself as more important. Absolute bodhichitta obliterates the basis of self-cherishing because it is seen that the ego and personal identity are manifesting and bodhichitta is the solution. Therefore, it is said that training in absolute bodhichitta completely eliminates self-cherishing. But for a beginner it may not be so easy to be successful doing this. Therefore, it is more practical to put more emphasis on relative bodhichitta: we take the bodhisattva vow and commence in training to be a bodhisattva, especially by studying such wonderful and beautiful texts like Shantideva’s Guide to a Bodhisattva’s Way. This text explains the benefits of developing bodhichitta, how to do so, the different kinds of training involved, and the negative consequences of ignoring the importance of becoming a bodhisattva.

The Seven Points of Mind Training may not be as detailed as Guide to a Bodhisattva’s Way, but for a beginner it is more applicable because the Guide to a Bodhisattva’s Way does not clearly mention how to begin practice, whereas the Seven Points does. In that way, The Seven Points of Mind Training is more practical and useful for a beginner.

1. The Preliminary Practice

The preliminary practice of relative bodhichitta is to meditate on love and compassion for all living beings. Since this is difficult to do, we begin by generating love and compassion towards our mother. The way to start is to visualize our mother in front of us.

In modern times, when we look at the world, we like to think that in general everything is improving—that people’s conditions are improving, that wealth is increasing, and that things are getting better. But sometimes it is very obvious that something is wrong. One of the ways we know this is true is that in these times people do not like their mothers. Even though we love our mother, we sometimes become angry with her. If we think about it though, our mother has been incredibly kind by giving us our life and then sacrificing a great deal for us.

When we think about our mother, we should think about how much our mother did for us. We think, “When I was first born, I did not know how to walk. I did not know how to speak. I did not know how to put food into my own mouth, or how to go to the bathroom. I did not know anything. And my mother was the one who took care of me. In fact, I would not have turned into a person at all had she not taken care of and helped me. She put food into my mouth, she took me to the bathroom, and she put on my clothes. When I got a little bigger she would say, ‘No, don’t do that, it is dangerous.’ She taught me everything that is necessary to become a proper human being.”

Of course, sometimes our mother became angry at us and she may have even spanked us. But again, we couldn’t understand at that time why that happened. It wasn’t because she didn’t love us or she had some kind of malice towards us. It was necessary because she was teaching us. If she hit us, she did not hit us because it was of some benefit to her; if she scolded us, she didn’t do so because she liked it. It was all for our benefit and was the result of a great kindness to us.

In this practice we first feel compassion for our mother with the thought, “May she be freed from all suffering,” and we show love for her with the thought, “May she have complete happiness.” This text on mind training gives us the oral instruction to start with our mother and gradually extend compassion to all the rest of the beings in the world. We extend this compassion (May all living beings be freed from all suffering.) and this universal love (May they possess all happiness.) to the point where we regard all beings impartially.

That was the preliminary. Now we come to the actual meditation, which is the sending and taking meditation (Tib. tonglen).

2. The Main Practice of Relative Bodhichitta

7. Alternately practice sending and taking; these two should ride the breath.

The first instruction of practicing relative bodhichitta is that sending and taking should be practiced alternately. This is an instruction we actually follow. The practice shows why we should give-up self-cherishing and regard others as more important. It does not use reasoning or deduction; rather, it is very simple advice on how to begin. We begin by imagining other living beings in front of us, many or just a few. We can imagine people in pain, people we know who are sick, people in distress or suffering. We imagine that we send these people happiness and the causes of happiness as well. For this to happen, we imagine that we give them whatever goodness we can think of, and we imagine that we receive whatever suffering and causes of suffering, all the distress and negative emotions they experience. We imagine that by being freed from suffering and its causes, they experience happiness and well-being. We practice this again and again and thus become more and more used to taking away the suffering of others and giving them our own well-being and causes of happiness. By training in this sending and taking practice, the regarding of oneself as more important than others diminishes and regarding others as more important becomes stronger and stronger.

Moreover, the traditional instructions help us to become accustomed to a more positive way of thinking. It is not just our imagination, but we join it with our breath. When we exhale we imagine (or visualize) that our merit, our well-being, our physical and mental happiness, whatever fortune we may possess is sent out to other living beings in the form of our white exhaled breath and it touches the others who become filled with whatever goodness we have sent them. We imagine they are freed of any burden they carry and are happy and well. As we inhale, we imagine that anything troubling them (their negative emotions, their suffering, their problems, and so forth) leaves them in the form of dark light and we inhale it, taking it upon ourselves. Immediately, they are freed from the burden and we imagine them at ease, happy and calm. We practice that again and again.

We train in this meditation, called tonglen in Tibetan, to diminish our self-cherishing attitude and become more caring for others. In doing this practice we may worry, “If I give away all my merit, happiness, and well-being to others, I will not have anything for myself. Not only that, I may get sick and suffer from taking on the suffering of others.” When things don’t go so well for us, we may then think, “Well, this is because I practiced giving and taking too much. I was too concerned about taking on the suffering of others and now these terrible things are happening to me.” But there is no reason to worry because we do not really exchange the karma we haven’t created, with karma created by others. Karma cannot be transferred or eliminated by giving and taking practice, so we don’t need to worry at all.

We may have another fear: “Well, what is the use of practicing giving and taking if it doesn’t help alleviate the suffering of others or bring them happiness?” The answer to this is that we do not do this practice to bring about an immediate result in the other person. The purpose of this practice is to diminish our clinging to self-cherishing and to increase the attitude of benevolence and loving-kindness. Sending and taking training does accomplish that. Because the more we think of giving away our own happiness, well-being, and merit, the more we diminish the concern for “only me.” The more we train in giving happiness to other living beings and taking on their suffering, the more the virtuous qualities of loving-kindness, compassion, bodhichitta, will grow within us. When these qualities have become stronger and stronger, we will then be able to directly help others substantially. So sending and taking helps ourselves, because the more we are involved in benevolent activities for others, the fewer problems we create for ourselves. Also it helps us as well as others. Maybe it doesn’t help immediately, but ultimately it becomes the cause for helping others. It is possible that sending and taking can help others immediately, however, it is not guaranteed.

3. The Post-meditation Practice

8. Three objects, three poisons, and three roots of virtue.

The training in giving and taking should be practiced alternately with the breath and should be done during the meditation session. Therefore it belongs to the meditation practice of relative bodhichitta. But there are also instructions to use sending and taking during post-meditation. The instructions say, “Three objects, three poisons, and three seeds of virtue.” When we move about in life, we see, hear, taste, smell, or touch an object that is pleasant, we become attracted to it and, as a result, form an attachment to this object in our mind. When, we notice that this has happened, our next thought should be: “May this represent the attachment of all living beings, and may all living beings be free of this attachment that is formed and overcome in my mind. May all beings experience happiness that arises from being free >from this attachment.”

We form this attitude and formulate the noble wish that all living beings be free. On the other side of the coin, we may see something unpleasant or hear something annoying and become irritated or angry because of an unpleasant encounter. If we notice that anger or aggression is forming in our mind much like an attachment, we should then make the wish: “May this represent the anger and aversion of all living beings, and may all living beings be free of anger and aversion, and may all beings experience happiness that arises from being totally free from anger and aversion.”

We may also be neither attracted nor repelled by something; our mind remains blank and we are absent-minded. If we notice this indifference, we should then make the wish that the blindness or stupidity of all living beings melts into our mind and that they are then free from their ignorance. We formulate our wish: “May this be the end of ignorance of all living beings and may they all have the happiness that arises from being free.”

In this practice, “the three objects” refers to those objects that provoke our emotion of attachment, aversion, or indifference, while “the three poisons” are the emotions of attachment, aversion or aggression, and stupidity. Then we imagine that all living beings dissolve into the emotions we have as they arise; and peace and virtue are formed with the wish, “May all living beings be free.” In this way, the three poisons are transformed into the three roots of virtue. This is the practice of relative bodhichitta that we do during post-meditation.

9. In all your activities, train with these words.

In addition to relative bodhichitta in our post-meditation experience, the text says, “In all activities, train in these instructions.” We put our words into action so that when we meet others who are better off than we, who are happy, who do good actions and so forth, rather than being jealous or competitive, we make the wish: “May they have happiness and may they progress in what they do. May their activities increase.”

When we meet others who don’t do anything special, we make our wish: “May they progress, may they give rise to the noble attitude of bodhichitta. May they have happiness.”

When we see others who are suffering, we make the wish: “May they be free from suffering. May they be quickly relieved of the causes of suffering and experience peace.”

When we meet people who are actively involved in creating causes for suffering by hurting others, we again make the wish, “May they quickly stop doing so and attain happiness.”

We do not only pray when we meet such people but also when we hear about them; even when we just think about them, we make our wishing prayer.

These instructions do not mean that we only make good wishes because there are situations in which we can actually help others to increase their well-being, to remove their distress and suffering. If we are able to do so, then there is a chance to do something to help other beings, so why hold back? We can do it on the spot. It may be impossible to help them but that doesn’t mean we can’t give rise to the attitude, “I might not be able to alleviate the suffering of this person in this moment, but when the chance comes later on, may I be able to do so.” We can hope and formulate our wish like that, praying to free others >from suffering and to provide them with happiness.

10. Begin the sequence of sending and taking with yourself.

There is one more instruction for daily activities in the section on the post-meditation of relative bodhichitta. It has to do with not being able to help someone in great need and distress. We may not be able to help them, but we can still help someone who is not that terribly distressed and troubled. We can begin by feeling for a friend in trouble and need; we can begin with someone close to us. Having begun, we begin to focus and gradually become capable of helping others afflicted with suffering until finally we are actually capable of benefiting all living beings.

This practice of sending and taking should be done both as actual sending and taking meditation on the breath , and also as part of our normal daily activities. For instance, any time that we have a feeling of strong attachment, we should think, “May all beings be free of this feeling of attachment.” If we are suffering or sick, or something terrible happens causing mental or physical pain, we should think, “May all living beings be free of such pain.” If we become angry at someone, we should think, “All living beings feel this. May they be free of such hatred and anger.” In the same way if we do something very good, then we should think, “May all living beings enjoy this virtue.” If something very nice happens to us and we are very happy, we should again think, “May all living beings experience this happiness.”

No matter what we are doing, we can practice this mind training . It is very beneficial to actually say the words, “May all living beings have happiness; may all living beings be freed of suffering.”

Questions

Question: In the United States there are a number of mothers who whip their children for reasons that are not beneficial. When I use the instructions to teach the practice of compassion in abused families, it is very difficult for me to talk about that section because people who have been greatly injured say to me, “That doesn’t make sense and it is not true.”

Rinpoche: First of all, the meditation doesn’t necessarily have to be on the mother. The point is to meditate on somebody who has given as much loving-kindness and help. Whoever that is, it is okay to start with them. Nonetheless, it is usually a mistake to think that one’s mother is not kind. Think back to the first year of life when you were completely helpless. If it weren’t for your mother, you would certainly have died. When the child grows and develops some kind of consciousness of self, then it can begin to have trouble with the mother. The mother might say, “You must eat now,” and you answer, “No, I don’t want to.” Then trouble starts. The child does not want to do what the mother says and gets angry, and the situation starts from there. It seems to me that still there is something wrong with the idea that the mother is not kind because there is something very natural that comes from a mother with her baby: “This is my child.” There is a natural protection and tendency to want to protect that child.

Psychologists have a very good motivation and really want to help. People are very unhappy and have much mental suffering, so psychologists and psychotherapists try to fix that suffering, to make it better. This is all very wonderful. But sometimes there can be a problem when they try to find out what causes the suffering or what the source of the pain is. The patient answers, “Well, my mother did this to me.” The therapist answers, “That’s it! That’s the source of your pain. It comes from your mother. She’s the one.” I think that this is not necessarily true.

Question: I have a question about taking and sending. When you are taking in the negativities of others, what do you do with them? Do you dissolve them into emptiness or into the ground?

Rinpoche: In this teaching it is said that you just imagine that all the non-virtue and suffering dissolve into you, and nothing more is said about it. But there is another way to do it, a special way in which you visualize yourself as Chenrezig with a white letter HRI in your heart. That HRI is very hot and has the nature of flames. When you visualize taking on all the suffering and non-virtue of all beings, you visualize it as a black cloud that comes to you and goes in through your nose and down into your heart center, where the HRI burns it up. So all the suffering and non-virtue of all beings is burned up. When you are sending forth all your virtue and well-being, you visualize that it goes out in a white mist that spreads to all living beings, and they become very pure and endowed with great happiness.

Question: Let’s say a thief comes into the shrine-room and hears the statement, ‘Regard all phenomena as dreams,’ then goes down to Brunswick and starts stealing money from all the stores. When the policeman arrests him, he says, “There is no theft, there is no thief, nothing was stolen. These are all dreams.” But there is a problem if the policeman is not a dharma practitioner. So what should the policeman do or say?

Rinpoche: Here is what the policeman should say: “Yes, everything is illusory and unreal, like a dream, but there is still human feeling, even though it is dream-like. Therefore, there is also the dream-like experience of being imprisoned.”

Question: If we are frequently faced with a wrathful person who really wants to destroy us, what is the most effective method of coping with this problem? Is it better to do Tara practice, taking and sending practice, or some kind of wrathful protector practice ?

Rinpoche: Whether you do Tara or protector practice , the result should be the same. The most beneficial practice is the taking and sending practice and the practice of patience. Sometimes it is not possible to have this much patience, and if that is the case, then the best thing to do is to stay away from the person. If there is such a strong case of animosity, when that person sees you, the animosity will just increase and nothing good can come of it. At that point the best thing is just to stay away from that person or situation and the sooner it is forgotten, the better the situation will be.





Chapter 4

Transforming Unfavorable Circumstances

III. HOW TO CARRY THE PRACTICE ONTO THE PATH

A. The General Practice

11. When the world is filled with negativity, transform adverse conditions into the path of awakening.

We have described the meditation of wishing all of our good fortune, happiness, and virtue to be given to other living beings, and taking all the evil, suffering, and causes of suffering of all living beings onto ourselves. This is the main meditation, but in our daily lives many things often happen unexpectedly, such as a surprise illness. Then the question becomes, “What do we do about these things? How do we meditate in situations where we are happy and situations when we are suffering?” This is the meaning of “transform adverse conditions into the path of awakening.”

Sometimes it seems that the world is filled with negativity and that living beings have much suffering and many accidents befalling them. We must learn to transform these negative circumstances into the path to enlightenment. This can be done in two ways: through the practice of relying on relative bodhichitta and through the practice of relying on ultimate bodhichitta. The instruction describing relative bodhichitta is described in the following section.

1. Relying on Relative bodhichitta

There are two aspects to relative bodhichitta when we are practicing using troubles and difficulties as a way to bring us along the path to enlightenment. The first has to do with diminishing self-cherishing and the second has to do with increasing one’s sense of valuing others. The first aspect of diminishing self-cherishing can occur in situations when we go through difficulties and hard times. The instruction is:

12. Drive all blame into one.

When something bad befalls us—maybe we become sick or injured or have great mental suffering, because people gossip about or insult us—we always tend to put the blame on others by thinking, “I didn’t do anything, yet this person has really hurt me,” or “This has happened to me. Why has it happened? It is not my fault.” We always put the blame on other people or outside circumstances. But in mind training we should do exactly the opposite. We should not think that the blame lies outside ourselves, but that the fault is ours. We should think the fault comes from holding ourselves to be precious, from believing, “I am important.” We believe that the self is important when it really isn’t.

Self-cherishing has to do with the sense of self, “This is me.” What the “I” refers to is not so certain. People may use “I” to refer to the body, other times to the mind. It is not that clear. In terms of the knowledge that realizes egolessness, there is a certain way to question the validity of the belief that there exists such an entity called “I.” But that is not in the scope of relative mind training; we just take it as a given that if there is this belief, then it is the problem and not the object of that belief. Selfishness is anchored in the belief “I exist.” It is the main cause of our unhappiness. Thinking, “I am important. I am special,” is the basis for so many problems, for so much selfishness and negative emotions. Sometimes anger arises, sometimes hatred or sometimes attachment and desire, sometimes pride and conceit; sometimes it is jealousy, sometimes stinginess, or sometimes close-mindedness. These emotions are allowed to take a foot-hold because they are nourished by the belief in “me,” by regarding “me” as so special. As a matter of fact, sometimes the sense of “I” is regarded as the single and most important entity in the entire world: “I am incredibly important and valuable!” That is what is called “self-cherishing,” which is regarded as what is to be eliminated in the practice of mind training. We may think that self-cherishing is some intrinsic component of our being, but it isn’t. It is just a thought that pops up, and that is why it can be eliminated.

The difficulties that we have at present are all brought on by self-cherishing. Whatever problems we have, the amount of suffering they cause is directly related to how strongly we regard ourselves as being important. Even the more general and large-scale suffering of samsara—birth, old age, sickness, and death—is ultimately caused by self-cherishing, by ego-clinging. This is why whenever we go through difficulties, we can rightfully blame self-cherishing as the main cause of the problem.

I want to give an example about how it is that taking the self to be real is the true enemy. The story in question is about the great teacher Patrul Rinpoche , who lived in Kham. One time he was traveling with a servant to Central Tibet. They had a lot of money with them. The reason they were carrying so much money was that they were going to Central Tibet to offer butter lamps, make statues, and do many other virtuous things. The two were traveling alone across the Chang Thang Desert which was notorious for its thieves. At night they couldn’t sleep because they feared someone was going to steal the money, so they suffered terribly. And in the daytime they were constantly looking around, ahead and behind, wondering, “Are the thieves going to come? Where will they come from?” It was extremely difficult.

One day Patrul Rinpoche thought, “I’m really not having a good time. It is so hard. What is the actual cause of my having such a bad time on this trip?” Then he realized, “It’s the money. If I didn’t have all this money, I could rest at night and travel comfortably. I wouldn’t have constantly to look over my shoulder to see if a thief is coming.” While he was thinking this, his servant was walking ahead looking out for the thieves and robbers while Patrul Rinpoche was behind. “Well, it’s really simple,” he thought. “This money is the source of the trouble and I am going to get rid of it.” With that, he threw the money into the river, thinking, “It’s gone now. That’s great. Now I’m really happy.” So he went along while his servant was still watching out for the thieves and robbers. Finally he said to his servant, “We don’t have to worry anymore. The thieves and robbers are in the water.” The servant said, “What do you mean ‘the thieves and robbers are in the water’? They are everywhere.” Patrul Rinpoche said, “No, I threw the money in the water. That was the real source of our problem.” This illustrates that the problem was an internal attachment to the money, rather than the outside robbers.

The problem is we are so attached to a solid self which is, in fact, really empty. Shantideva said, “Whatever harm, fear and suffering there are in the world come from taking the self to be real. This is such a great demon. What will it do to me, this clinging to a self?” The answer is that the demon has to be tamed. The demon of believing the ego to be real has to be subdued.

13. Be grateful to everyone and everything.

“Be grateful to everyone” means to try to understand that others give us kindness. First of all, this is most easy to practice when people are nice and we have a pleasant and enjoyable time with them. Then we think, “I had a good time with so-and-so.” It is very easy to think others are very nice when they are kind to us. But when others are nasty, hurt our feelings, or disappoint us, we complain, “This is so frustrating, so disheartening, disappointing. I am so tired, both mentally and physically, of spending time with so-and-so.” This shows quite clearly that we are not capable of doing mind training at that time and instead just blame the other person. On the other hand, there is a way to deal with this, namely by using the opportunity when people are unpleasant to cultivate patience, tolerance, and compassion. We actually see that they provide us with the opportunities to practice and cultivate positive qualities, and we should be very thankful to them for this.

In other words, when people hurt or harm us or throw obstacles our way, we should regard these as an opportunity for practice. It is an opportunity to practice because it offers the chance to use our patience, our willingness to carry through and develop our compassion. These frustrating people are actually kind by providing us the chance to progress on the path. Acknowledging and appreciating this kindness is a way of making use of the difficulties on the path to enlightenment, which comes under the heading of contemplating the great kindness of everyone in order to increase cherishing others.

This is a way to reduce self-cherishing and a way to increase cherishing others in order to bring difficulties into the path of enlightenment. These two aspects fall under the training of relative bodhichitta.

There is another relevant quote from Shantideva ‘s A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life :

If the road is covered with rocks and thorns,

you can either pave the entire road with leather,

or you can take a piece of leather

and place it on the soles of your own feet.

This example shows that the world is filled with suffering which you cannot stop by trying to pacify all the different negative forces and obstacles. What you can do is protect yourself. This protection rids you of clinging to a self. That is the same as covering the soles of your feet with leather, rather than paving the whole world with it.

In another quote Shantideva says, “All the suffering and bad things that happen in the world come from this clinging to a self.” The Buddha taught that one should not consider oneself to be more precious than others. Rather, we should consider others more important and more precious. From beginningless time, throughout samsara, we have considered ourselves to be more important and more precious than others, and this has brought about all our obstacles and suffering. Therefore, this attitude is what we must eliminate. The whole problem is based upon holding others to be more important than ourselves.

So the citations from Shantideva concerned reliance on relative bodhichitta . The next lines deal with relying on ultimate bodhichitta.

2. Relying on Ultimate Bodhichitta

To rely on ultimate bodhichitta is to realize emptiness, and to understand that all suffering and negativity actually lack reality. It is like being carried away by water or burnt by fire in a dream ; the suffering in that dream is not real. It is the reali­zation of the emptiness of phenomena, the realization that life is a dream that leads to realization of ultimate bodhichitta . The instruction for this is:

14. Seeing delusive appearances as the four kayas is the unexcelled protection emptiness gives.

The way to see confusion as the four kayas (four bodies or four dimensions) is to regard any difficulties and troubles we may experience as a dream, a magical illusion, because the true nature of external phenomena has no inherent nature:14 e 13 xternal phenomena of samsara are like phenomena in a dream: they do not exist and the realization of this absence of true existence is the dharmakaya. While phenomena do not exist ultimately, on a relative level, due to mere dependent origination, they arise like appearances in a dream and this is the nirmanakaya. These two qualities of being non-existent and yet perceived or experienced are an indivisible unity which is the sambhogakaya. The unity of all three kayas or dimensions is the svabhavikakaya. In this way, we can train in treating confusion as the four kayas, which is how they actually are. This method is called “the unexcelled protection of shunyata or emptiness.”

If we have developed some stability in our meditation we may be capable of dealing with problems and mishaps by regarding everything as an illusion, the nature of the four kayas. Otherwise, we will have to train in the relative level of dealing with difficulties by bringing them into the path of enlighten­ment, diminishing self-cherishing and increasing cherishing others.

In addition to this instruction, there is the following practice called “the special application of bringing difficulties into the path of enlightenment.”

15. The best method entails four practices.

Calling the four practices the best method means that these four are methods for eliminating all pain and suffering for oneself, and bringing happiness and benefit to all beings. this is possible through the following four methods.

a . Accumulating Merit

The first practice is accumulating merit. We can ask, “Is it really possible to rid ourselves of suffering and create circumstances which are conducive to the practice of dharma?” The answer is that this is possible because all things have a cause, and the cause of happiness is virtuous activity. To create this cause of virtue we must first accumulate merit.

Where does the fortune of good health, prosperity, and enjoyment come from? They result from the ripening of wholesome karmic actions in the past, primarily that of a noble intention, but also noble physical and verbal behavior, showing respect to noble objects, being generous to those in need, and so forth. All these are the accumulation of merit. When we train in creating merit, we insure that positive circumstances will follow and negative circumstances will subside.

b . Confession of Negative Deeds

To accumulate merit, we also need to be freed of our previous negative karma. To do this we must engage in confessing our negative deeds, which is done through the four powers .15

Situations have repercussions called “the ripening of karma.” One of the ways to reduce the ripening of karma is through regret for having created the causes that bring on suffering. This is one of the main special applications: to confess or acknowledge negative actions. The Tibetan word is shagpa and has the sense of chipping away, e.g., when chopping down a tree one starts bit by bit until nothing keeps it from standing any more. In the same way, regretting and acknowledging are the opposite of justifying our self and our rigid actions. As long as we hold on to our entrenched attitude, it is impossible to change. On the other hand, if we loosen up our attitude, feeling regret for what we have done, then we are able to let go of that pattern, slowly changing our ways. This is why confessing for having done something negative is the second of the special applications.

For example, if we have the attitude that killing is good, or that it is our job and we earn a lot, every time we have that thought, it solidifies and becomes more and more difficult to change. On the other hand, if we start thinking, “Maybe it is not so good to kill again and again. This will not help me in the long-run. It will make things very difficult and also hurts others.” That kind of attitude will weaken the severity of karma. It will also make the ripening of the negative karma of killing less strong.

c . Making an Offering to Gods and Demons

When we encounter obstacles, whether from other persons or non-humans, we should practice the three methods . If someone dislikes us and harms us, we usually retaliate. But when we think about whether anger will solve the problem, we will realize that it will not. If someone is angry at us and does something hateful, and we get angry and want to retaliate by saying mean words and fighting, the only result is that this person will become increasingly angry and cause more harm. Whether the obstacle is caused by a human or a non-human force, it is clear that by reacting with anger or revenge the situation will only get worse. Therefore, the correct thing to do if someone harms us is to be patient and compassionate. In these circumstances the other person’s reaction can only decrease in strength, whereas if we react in the same manner as they, the conflict will only escalate. Our sole option, then, is to meditate on patience and compassion.

When we request a Vajrayana initiation, a torma is usually offered at the beginning to all demons and obstructing forces, because it is possible that they may try to create some kind of obstacle to our receiving the initiation and doing the practice. This torma is a symbol for what we have just discussed: the fact that if harm or an obstruction occurs, it cannot be pacified by anger, retaliation, or re