Perfect Freedom:
The Great Value of Being Human
Lama Zopa Rinpoche
|
|
Chapter One: Generating Bodhicitta
The people doing the Vajrasattva retreat asked me to speak
on something. Not being a Dharma practitioner, I have nothing
to teach, but one or two of my words may help persuade some
people to continue their practice or to make their practice
purer.
Your present action of listening to this teaching should
become the cause of happiness. However, to have an attitude
seeking just the happiness of future lives is not sufficient.
Even to listen to this Mahayana thought-training teaching
with an attitude seeking self-liberation, the cessation of
suffering, is not sufficient. Your aim should be to achieve
enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings; your
action then becomes a cause to achieve enlightenment. Simply
listening to a Mahayana teaching is not a sufficient cause
to achieve enlightenment. For your present action of listening
to this teaching to become a cause of enlightenment, you
should have the attitude of a Mahayanist: "At any rate
I must achieve the state of omniscient mind for the benefit
of all sentient beings; therefore, I am going to listen to
this teaching."
Bodhicitta: the heart practice
Training your mind in bodhicitta, the thought renouncing
yourself and cherishing others, is extremely important at
all times, under all circumstances. Keep this as your heart
practice. Even for a Dharma practitioner in retreat (whether
you are reciting mantras, meditating on a deity or training
your mind in lam rim), all obstacles - your wishes not being
fulfilled, no success in your practice, nothing happening
as you planned - come from the selfish attitude, which is
the opposite to bodhicitta. The selfish attitude always interferes,
not allowing space in your mind for bodhicitta. Even though
you may be in retreat, not even one session is done purely
for other sentient beings, with a pure attitude of bodhicitta,
cherishing only others. There is not one session you can
feel satisfied was done purely for others.
Not only during the motivation, but even during the meditation
time, hundreds of thoughts arise. More time is spent in the
other retreat, the cause of samsara: the retreat from pure
view, from bodhicitta, from awareness of emptiness, from
one-pointed concentration, from the Vajrasattva mantra. Your
meditations become a retreat from seeing all forms as the
deity, all sounds as the deity's mantra and all thoughts
as the nature of the deity's holy mind. Since most of your
time is spent in non- virtue, the session becomes a retreat
from virtue. Doing Vajrasattva retreat in this way, you do
not receive any signs of purification, not even in your dreams.
If you check your everyday life, you find that all obstacles,
all undesirable experiences and failures, come from the selfish
attitude. Even for people not trying to train their minds
in lam rim or practice holy Dharma, all unhappiness and confusion
come from each person's selfish attitude. If the selfish
attitude is strong, bigger and bigger problems come, one
after another. For everyone - those who practice Dharma and
those who do not, but do everyday jobs such as working in
an office, running a business or farming - the selfish attitude
is the greatest interference. It is very clear that with
less selfishness, there is more success.
Even if a person does not know what virtue is and how to
accumulate it or what non-virtue is and how to avoid it,
if he has less selfishness, he automatically has more good
heart. Even if he has not met Buddhadharma, through having
a good heart, his actions become virtue. Although he has
never heard any teaching on karma or refuge, such a person
has less selfishness and more thought of cherishing others.
His actions of helping others with his body, speech and mind
come from a sincere heart, a pure attitude, with no expectation
for himself. In return he does not expect to receive a good
reputation, or material help such as food or clothing from
that person in the future. All his actions to help others
are pure virtue because they come from a sincere heart, with
no expectations or selfish motives.
The actions of the generous, good-hearted Western people
who are called "hippies" may be much purer than
those of people with faith in karma and refuge who expect
something in return for their help. Such a person may help
others, but with the expectation of a good rebirth in their
next life: "If I practice charity, I will be wealthy
and happy in my next life." This person does have faith
in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, but his action of offering
charity to others is done with the selfish attitude of wanting
happiness for himself. This action does become virtue, but
it is not as pure as that of someone who has not met Dharma
but helps others with a pure, sincere heart, without any
expectation or selfish attitude.
Whether you practice Dharma or not, whether you are renounced
or not, unless there is some change to this selfish attitude,
there is no peace. Selfishness
doesn't allow any space in the mind for realizations, and is the greatest
interference to harmony in the family and in society.
It is the greatest obstacle to success
in this life and beyond this life, up to enlightenment.
To develop a pure attitude of bodhicitta, you need to practice
Mahayana teachings. You should train your mind in bodhicitta
all the time. Through the practice
of bodhicitta, you will one day become enlightened and be able to guide
other sentient beings, like fully enlightened beings
such as Guru Shakyamuni Buddha,
Manjushri, Maitreya Buddha, Tara, Vajrapani and Vajrasattva, the objects
of refuge to whom you now pray for the fulfillment of your temporal and
ultimate wishes. As the great pandit Chandrakirti says
in Madhyamakavatara:
The Hearer-Listeners and the Self-Conquerors are born from
the mighty one, Shakyamuni Buddha. The fully purified and
developed Buddha is born from bodhicitta, and bodhicitta
is born from compassion.
The Hearer-Listeners and Self-Conquerors are the arhats
of the Lesser Vehicle path. Buddha is born from bodhicitta
and non-dual transcendental wisdom. Bodhicitta is born from
the compassion that finds it unbearable that sentient beings
are obscured, ignorantly thinking that things are permanent
and exist from their own side, even though they are impermanent
in nature.
Lama Tsongkapa explains the different levels of practice
in his short, middle and great commentaries on the lam rim.
(The condensed lam rim prayer The Hymns of Experience
of the Graduated Path to Enlightenment is for those of lower
intelligence.) Lama Tsongkapa explains that bodhicitta is
the main part of the Mahayana path. Without the main trunk
of a tree, branches cannot grow and there can be no flowers
or fruit. Foundation of the Mahayana, bodhicitta is the base
for the great bodhisattva actions of the six paramitas and
the four methods of gathering sentient beings. Bodhicitta
is the base for doing extensive works for all sentient beings.
If you have the main trunk of bodhicitta, you can accomplish
all the rest of the realizations up to enlightenment, which
are like the branches, flowers and fruit. You can accomplish
the immeasurable qualities of Buddha's holy body, holy speech
and holy mind. Without bodhicitta, there is no way to have
the rest of the Mahayana realizations, just as you cannot
expect to have branches bringing forth fruit without the
main trunk of a tree. If you have bodhicitta, you can achieve
all the other great bodhisattva actions.
Bodhicitta is like the alchemy that transforms iron into
gold. (There is a meditation technique to transform iron
into gold, but it is very dangerous. The great pandit Nagarjuna
performed this meditation and used the gold he created to
support the monks in many monasteries.) By achieving the
ultimate good heart of bodhicitta, not only are you able
to transform indifferent actions into virtue, but can even
transform non-virtuous actions into virtue. You are able
to transform even actions such as killing, stealing, telling
lies, gossiping, harsh speech and so forth, which are by
nature non-virtuous. You cannot transform these actions into
virtue now, but you will be able to later, when you have
achieved the ultimate good heart of bodhicitta, and you will
be able to do the various great bodhisattva actions to guide
other sentient beings.
If you have bodhicitta, you can accumulate the two types
of merit: the merit of fortune and of wisdom. By meditating
on emptiness, you accumulate the merit of transcendental
wisdom. For example, when meditating on either the self-generation
or front generation of a deity, if you are aware of the nature
of the deity, that it does not exist from its own side except
as merely labelled, that it is a dependent arising, you accumulate
the merit of transcendental wisdom. Focusing on the pure
view of the deity accumulates the merit of fortune, or method.
If you are aware, you can accumulate the two types of merit
when giving one rupee to a beggar. If you are only lending
one rupee to the person, however, you are not a worthy base
to be labelled "giver," since this is not the function
performed by your aggregates; there is no thought or action
of giving. The act of giving has to have a subject, an action
and an object of charity.
The giver, the action of giving and the object of charity
are all three dependent on each other. You should be aware
that of these three, nothing exists from its own side except
what is labelled on each of the bases. If you generate
bodhicitta, wishing enlightenment for yourself and all
sentient beings,
and give one rupee (or even ten paise) to a beggar, with
awareness also of the true nature of the self, action and
object, you accumulate both merits: the merit of fortune
and of wisdom, as you are aware of emptiness.
Lama Tsongkapa advises that with the ultimate mind of bodhicitta,
any merit you accumulate, whether of transcendental wisdom
or fortune, becomes the cause of enlightenment. Like
alchemy, bodhicitta transforms all the merit you accumulate
into
the cause of enlightenment. Otherwise, even though you
may have
realized emptiness, practicing charity without bodhicitta
becomes the cause only of liberation from samsara. If
you seal your action with emptiness, it becomes a remedy
to
cut just the root of samsara; it does not become the
cause of
enlightenment. Bodhicitta makes a huge difference: without
it, the merit you accumulate is like one handful of dust;
with it, the merit is like the whole earth.
With bodhicitta, every merit you accumulate, whether
of transcendental wisdom or of fortune, brings infinite,
incredible
results.
This is why Lama Tsongkapa says:
Bodhicitta is the treasure bringing infinite merit. By understanding
this, the brave sons of the Victors keep bodhicitta as their
heart practice. I, the venerable guru, practiced like this.
I am requesting you, the seeker of liberation, also to practice
in this way.
This implies that those seeking happiness should keep bodhicitta
as their heart practice. Actually the greatest obstacle to
happiness, for worldly people and Dharma practitioners, is
self- cherishing thought; and the best method to achieve
happiness is bodhicitta. Even without thinking about enlightenment,
since sentient beings want happiness and success, the most
fruitful way to achieve these is through practicing bodhicitta.
The graduated paths of the three scopes
Why bodhicitta should be the heart practice is shown in
the graduated paths of the three scopes. The graduated path
of the being of small scope includes perfect human rebirth
(its usefulness and the difficulty of receiving it again),
impermanence and death, the sufferings of the three lower
realms, refuge and karma. The Four Noble Truths are revealed
in the path of the being of intermediate scope. However,
these paths are the preliminaries; the actual body of the
path is the essential practice of bodhicitta - and the six
paramitas based on that - revealed in the path of the being
of great scope.
By training your mind in the graduated paths of the small
and intermediate scopes, you generate renunciation of samsara,
the cause of liberation. By training your mind in the graduated
path of great scope, you generate bodhicitta, the cause of
full enlightenment. By practicing lam rim, the graduated
paths of these three scopes, you can accomplish all your
wishes. If you wish to achieve the body of a god or human
being, you can accomplish this by training your mind in the
path of small scope. If you wish to be liberated from samsara,
you can accomplish this by training your mind in the path
of intermediate scope. If you wish to achieve the state of
omniscient mind, you can accomplish this by training your
mind in the path of great scope, which means training in
the six paramitas to complete the practice of bodhicitta.
These three great successes are accomplished by training
the mind in lam rim - and other temporal happiness comes
by the way. There is nothing missing from the lam rim, the
graduated path of the three scopes, as taught by the past
lineage lamas and the present qualified Tibetan lamas. It
is the complete, reliable path to enlightenment. If the lam
rim had something missing, you could not accomplish the three
great successes. If you cannot attain these by training your
mind in the lam rim, there is something wrong with the lam
rim teachings of Lama Tsongkapa. If the teachings of Lama
Tsongkapa are imperfect or unreliable, there is something
wrong with Lama Atisha's lam rim teachings. (Lama Atisha
re-established the practice of Buddhadharma in Tibet after
there had been a period of corruption.)
To trace the teachings back to Guru Shakyamuni Buddha in
this way, showing them to be imperfect and not the complete
path to enlightenment, would be a mistake and contradict
reality. There is no mistake: the teachings of Buddha are
perfect and reliable. After being shown the complete path
to enlightenment by his guru, Buddha practiced extensive
listening, reflection and meditation. Through these he generated
the complete path, ceasing all defilements and completing
all realizations, and thus achieved the state of omniscient
mind. From his complete experience, Buddha then revealed
the entire path to enlightenment, giving the teachings of
the three vehicles to his followers. Uncountable numbers
of yogis analyzed the teachings to see whether there were
any mistakes and whether they would lead them to the goal
of enlightenment. By listening to, reflecting on and putting
the teachings into practice, these yogis then achieved the
same state as Buddha.
Nothing is missing from the lam rim teachings of the three
scopes (this comprises not only the Paramitayana, but also
the four types of tantra). They include everything necessary
for the achievement of temporal and ultimate happiness. Unless
you dedicate your life to training your mind in the graduated
paths of the three scopes, no matter what other path you
try, you cannot generate renunciation of samsara, so you
cannot achieve even the nirvana of the Hinayana, let alone
that of the Mahayana.
Scientists examine tiny organisms through microscopes, but
Kadampa Geshes check the development of the mind through
their progress in lam rim. They check whether their selfishness,
anger, attachment, ignorance and so forth this year are less
than last year. The development of the mind is checked through
the lam rim, not through the ability to perform accurate
divination or generate certain experiences of heat in the
body, which even Hindus can do. The Kadampa Geshes do not
regard such clairvoyance and physical experiences as actual
proof of development of the mind.
Facing the lam rim and simply questioning what it is about
is regarded as more important than such experiences. Kadampa
Geshe Puchungwa asked Geshe Chen-ngawa: "Which would
you prefer to have - the eight general siddhis (this includes
such attainments as "quick legs" and the ability
to fly) and the five psychic powers, or experiences of the
graduated path to enlightenment?" Geshe Chen-ngawa answered: "I
would much rather face the lam rim and just question what
it is like than have all the eight siddhis and five psychic
powers. We have achieved these powers numberless times in
the past, but we have never achieved the graduated path to
enlightenment through generating renunciation, bodhicitta
and right view." By practicing bodhicitta, we are able
to take the highest essence and make our life the most beneficial
for all sentient beings. The Eight Verses of Thought Transformation
Even though I don't know very much, I thought to explain
a little about The Eight Verses of Thought Transformation.
The little I do know is by the kindness of my gurus. Many
thought training practices are condensed in The Eight
Verses,
written by Kadampa Geshe Langri Tangpa Dorje Sengye. These
thought-training teachings have not been made up by Tibetan
lamas; their reference is the Indian pandit, Nagarjuna:
Whatever sufferings sentient beings have,
May I experience them all.
Whatever happiness and merit I have accumulated,
May all these be experienced by other sentient beings.
The Eight Verses of Thought
Transformation is an incredible
practice. It is a very skillful psychological method that
can make being happy or unhappy, wealthy or poor, healthy
or sick, beneficial for all sentient beings. The Eight
Verses can even make dying beneficial for all sentient beings -
and living!
All the undesirable, miserable conditions in our life can
be utilized in the path to enlightenment, even disturbing
thoughts of ignorance, anger and attachment. Practicing
thought training can make all our undesirable experiences
desirable;
or if not desirable, at least make them not matter. Even
if we cannot develop our mind to the point where we are
happy to have problems, through practicing thought transformation,
we can at least reach a point where the problems don't
matter
to us. Whether you are healthy or sick, whether you have
possessions or lose them, whether you have friends or not,
it doesn't matter; both conditions are beneficial. Nothing
disturbs your efforts to achieve enlightenment.
When somebody, out of jealousy,
Blames and criticizes me,
I will take the loss upon myself
And offer the victory to them.
One Kadampa Geshe found the words of this verse extremely
beneficial when he was on pilgrimage and was treated
badly by some people who would not give him a place to
stay for
the night. He later wrote a commentary on The Eight
Verses.
The main subject of The Eight Verses is developing the
two types of bodhicitta: conventional, or all-obscuring,
bodhicitta
and absolute bodhicitta. Conventional bodhicitta is
the altruistic mind wishing to achieve enlightenment
for
the sake of all
sentient beings and absolute bodhicitta is right view.
To generate conventional bodhicitta, one needs to generate
the
root: compassion for all sentient beings. Simply having
a generous mind is not the complete realization of
bodhicitta. Even though it is extremely important to
have a generous
mind with thought to benefit others, you should not
be satisfied
just with that. In order to generate conventional bodhicitta,
one needs the realization of renunciation as a preliminary;
one needs to feel that being in samsara is like being
in the very center of a fire. Like a spear through
your heart,
you need to feel it is unbearable that other sentient
beings are obscured and experiencing samsaric sufferings.
You cannot generate bodhicitta, the ultimate good heart,
simply by repeating prayers over and over. Unless
you train your mind in the preliminary realizations of
the graduated
paths of small and intermediate scope (guru devotion,
perfect human rebirth, renunciation), you cannot
develop
bodhicitta
complete with all its characteristics. To see all
samsaric perfections as essenceless, feel that your being
in
samsara is unbearable and also feel unbearable compassion
for
others, you need to generate strong renunciation,
the wish to be
liberated from samsara.
Continue to Next Section |
