December 5, 2017
You Are Here to Bring Happiness to Every Being
First, I will mention this. Our kind, compassionate Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, who has achieved omniscience, who completed the potential of the mind, was the same as us before. He had all the attachment, all the ignorance, all the anger, all the pride and all the delusions, and the self-cherishing thought, and he suffered in samsara, which is without beginning. He was the same as us but he changed his mind, his attitude, from cherishing the I into cherishing others.
“Others” doesn’t mean only mother, father, sister, brother, boyfriend, girlfriend; it means all the numberless sentient beings: the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts—who, due to past karma in another life, miserliness, can’t find a mark of water on the ground or a spoonful of food for ten thousand years—it means all the animals and humans. Every single hell being, every single hungry ghost, every single animal living in oceans, the large ones like mountains and the small ones—I was told their name but I don’t remember. Every animal under the earth, in the grass—when we walk in dry grass, there are tiny flies that jump away at each step—in the forests, in the bushes. And not only in this world, but in the numberless universes that have been mentioned, not only by the Buddha but also be Western scientists. There are numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals in numberless universes, and numberless human beings. There are numberless universes, so numberless human beings, gods and demigods.
Like the Buddha did, we have to let go of the I and cherish the numberless sentient beings, not only somebody who loves us, who worships us, who likes us, even those who don’t worship us, who don’t like us. We cannot renounce them, not like that, not like most people running a country. We have to bring happiness to every being, we have to have compassion for everybody, for those who like us and those who don’t like us. The Buddha has compassion for everybody. Even if somebody cuts one side of his body to pieces slowly, slowly, and somebody else puts perfume on the other side, he has similar compassion for both of them. At least we have to have the wish like that to benefit the numberless others.
Then, of course, we need to have perfect power, so in every second we can read the minds of the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, gods, and demigods. Seeing their minds directly, we can see everyone’s suffering level of mind, their intelligence and needs, and we can know the different methods to free them from suffering and problems. Then we can gradually bring them to higher and higher happiness, temporary happiness and liberation from the oceans of samsaric sufferings forever, not only for a few days, a few years, a few lifetimes, but forever. Then we are able to bring them to peerless happiness, the total cessation of obscurations and the completion of realizations—enlightenment, buddhahood.
All Problems Come from Self-Cherishing
The word “buddhahood” comes from Sanskrit. In Tibetan it is sang gye. The translation is “the total cessation of obscurations—gross and subtle—and the completion of realizations.” We change the mind, the attitude; we let go of the I where all the problems and suffering come from. By renouncing the I, we cherish others; we live for others. Even in a couple, if one partner renounces the other, it brings so many problems in life. Even if they remain together physically, they always fight; there are many problems, and then they divorce. And divorce may not just happen once. Afterwards they might meet somebody else and think that this new person will help their happiness, and then another relationship and another divorce, on and on, like reciting om mani padme hum over and over again. Married in the morning, separated in the evening.
The family can be like this; a government running a country can be like this, with attachment, anger, ignorance, the self-cherishing thought. Even without relating to tantra, just with the basics, when you have these delusions, how can you run a country? With the self-cherishing thought, it is always “I,” “my power,” “my happiness,” “my this,” “my this,” all the time, day and night. Everything you do is for your power, for your happiness. The population’s happiness doesn’t come first.
There are good-hearted leaders, and, when that happens, there is great peace in the country, but mostly they are like that, because the education is missing. During their life, from childhood, primary school, high school, university, college, that vital education was missing. Instead, they were especially taught to develop the self-cherishing thought in the world and, like that, ignorance, anger and attachment developed. There was no education to bring peace in their heart, to pacify the self-cherishing thought, where all the problems come from.
When people run a country with that thought, what they think about first is their power, their happiness. Everything they do is for that. That is their main aim, not the happiness of the people. That is why there are so many problems in the world, in places such as Syria. The population doesn’t like the leader and they fight against him and many innocent, non-political people die. Hundreds and thousands die trying to escape. They try to cross the ocean to another country but their boat sinks. Even if they travel for months and get to another country, they are not accepted so they have to travel to another country. There are so many problems, so much suffering.
Unless You Exchange Self for Others You Cannot Attain Enlightenment
I was talking about the Buddha’s qualities. The Buddha changed his mind from self-cherishing into cherishing others, who are numberless in each realm. Can you imagine? He didn’t leave out one ant, one fishing worm. Cherishing others is where all happiness arises from, all temporary and ultimate happiness, all the realizations of the path. Cherishing the I is where all the problems arise from.
For example, in the market, in the city, in the road, we see people whose attitude is so selfish. They only think to achieve the happiness of the I. “When can I be happy?” is their mantra, like the way Himalayan people or Tibetans constantly recite OM MANI PADME HUM, not only in the morning but even while they are walking, in the shop, and so forth. Because of cherishing the I so much, they constantly think, “When can I be happy?” The Buddha cherished all the numberless living beings, but they just cherish themselves. Then, so many problems come in their life. So many things don’t succeed; so many things don’t happen because of the self-cherishing thought.
Venerable Ailsa has already gone through a lot of the lamrim subjects. In A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life the great bodhisattva Shantideva said,
If I do not actually exchange my happiness
For the suffering of others,
I shall not attain the state of buddhahood
And even in cyclic existence shall have no joy.1
As I have said, the Buddha let go of the I, the source of all the sufferings and problems, and cherished all others, the source of all happiness up to enlightenment. It doesn’t just bring your own happiness but, with that purest attitude of cherishing others, you can bring happiness to numberless sentient beings, from temporary happiness up to enlightenment.
Now and in the future, while you are in samsara, there is no happiness. Leave aside the happiness of future lives, even the works of this life cannot succeed. The self-cherishing thought is the main problem. It brings so many problems in life. Even your wishes to achieve happiness for this life can’t happen. Shantideva said,
Thus whoever wants to quickly afford protection
To both the self and other beings
Should practice that holy secret:
The exchanging of self for others.2
If you want to help yourself first and then help others, what can you do? Here Shantideva gave the answer. Many people have the thought, “I want to help others,” such as working in a school, or with deformed people, or looking after old people. Many people have the thought to look after others, to do things like that to guide or help them. Whoever wants to quickly guide themselves and others should do the practice of exchanging the self for others. That is the answer! That is what is usually missing. You don’t get that education in primary school, or university. Of course, even if it is not as profound as the Dharma, the advice is generally to be a good human being, to care for others, to think of others’ happiness instead of your own. In your daily life you should keep others’ happiness in your mind. It all depends on what realization, how much power you have, but you should do whatever you can.
Here, I’m not talking about learning the Buddhadharma, the lamrim, nothing deep like that. But even just to be a good human being, that thought is not emphasized. That isn’t the main education. That is why the world has become like boiling water, with so much hate and fighting. It has physically become like that, with so much suffering, because mentally it is like that.
Shantideva has given the method. This is what you do if you want to look after yourself; this is what you do if you want to help others. Whatever it is, looking after children or old people, the most important practice is to change your mind from cherishing the I into cherishing others. From there, loving kindness comes, compassion comes, all the positive minds come. Then, you bring happiness to others. It becomes giving only happiness to the numberless others in this world. You do that according to your capacity. Shantideva’s answer is exchanging oneself for others. That is the answer if you want to help this world.
This world is small. “Others” means the numberless sentient beings in the six realms, who are unenlightened, suffering, obscured. That is the one answer. If the leader of the country has that attitude, even a simple good heart, if they are a good human being, and especially if they can exchange themselves for others—the ultimate good heart—what they mainly think of is the happiness of the population. In that way, the problems of the people of the country become less and less and the people achieve so much happiness. They get so much happiness from this one person who has the ultimate good heart.
I have a guru, Kyabje Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche, who in Tibet was His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s helper in the very extensive debating subjects of Buddhist philosophy. Actually, they are condensed into the lamrim but, as they are studied and debated in the great universities of Sera Je, Sera Mey, Ganden Shartse and Jangtse, Drepung Loseling and Gomang, they are very expansive. Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche debated philosophy with His Holiness to help him. Those who were not his gurus but who helped His Holiness in that way are called “tsenshab.” In India Kyabje Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche became His Holiness’ guru when His Holiness took a commentary on Lama Atisha’s Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment and other teachings.
Rinpoche said there was a queen in England who was a holy being. I don’t know the name of the queen.3 During her time, not only England but the countries around had great peace. Rinpoche went to see her diamond walking stick in a museum in France. Rinpoche said that she was a manifestation of Palden Lhamo, and, a long time ago, a manifestation of Tara or Sarasvati, in Buddhism the goddess of wisdom, the protector of the Tibetan government and His Holiness and many high lamas, the embodiment of that. Rinpoche said there was great peace in England and in many other countries at that time. Generally, wherever there is a bodhisattva who has the ultimate good heart, the realization of bodhicitta, there is so much peace due to the blessing of the holy mind, due to bodhicitta. Wherever there is a bodhisattva, the rains come at the right time, things grow well, and there is a lot of peace in that country. That is very common.
In Taiwan there was a Chinese master, a monk, who came from China, I don’t know his name. There were some bone relics of his that his disciple, an abbess, gave to me. He was a great bodhisattva; he had let go of the I and cherished numberless sentient beings. Because Kaohsiung had not had rain for so many years, nothing grew there, but wherever he walked, because of his bodhicitta, rain came and the grass grew. For not only the people and animals but even for the environment there is amazing benefit from that one being who has the holy mind of bodhicitta.
In his monastery I saw his statue and his guru’s statue. The second abbess, who has a monastery and nunnery there, is highly respected in Taiwan. Every day people come in buses to get blessings. She is very much into keeping pure morality; that is her practice. She is the one who helped our college, Sera Je. There were four thousand monks at one time. I tried to offer food to them, dinner at first then gradually adding lunch and breakfast. She helped, giving a few hundred thousand, a few lakhs, of dollars, perhaps more than for the Maitreya Project.
When I went there once, the nuns were doing prostrations, prostrating to each word of the Golden Light Sutra. In the Kangyur, the Buddha’s teachings, there are elaborate, middle and short versions of the Golden Light Sutra, and the nuns were doing prostration to each word. They all had the book and were doing prostrations. When I went there the second time, they had already finished doing prostrations to each word twice and were doing it for a third time. She very much led her disciples to do that.
There was another nun who was perhaps a little bit more famous but she was more into schools and hospitals. When I was there I didn’t see much in terms of practice, like the other nun, but more in terms of social service. She served the great bodhisattva monk, her teacher who came from China. What I heard was that she was actually the mother of that great bodhisattva monk in a past life. That is very possible.
In Shantideva’s verse he said we should “practice that holy secret.” One explanation is that exchanging oneself for others is a very brave bodhisattva’s practice, so we practice it secretly. Bodhisattvas of lower intelligence are not brave enough to practice this, so we should keep it secret from them. That is one explanation, but I think it also means we don’t expose the practice. We don’t publicize it, like in the West, “I’m a great practitioner! I have this realization!” to make a billion dollars, or a reputation, or to have many millions of disciples. We keep the practice of exchanging oneself for others quiet, otherwise there could be pride. Without naming it, without exposing it much outside, we practice it quietly. I think that is one way to understand the way to practice.
Happiness and Suffering Come from the Mind
This shows the difference from the attitude of the rest of the world, the attitude of those who run the government and the population. But now you are here, what you are doing is totally different; it is totally opposite to what the people in the rest of the world do. There are two things to understand.
In A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life Shantideva said,
Whatever joy there is in this world
All comes from desiring others to be happy,
And whatever suffering there is in this world
All comes from desiring myself to be happy.What need is there to say more?
The childish work only for their own benefit,
The buddhas work for the benefit of others.
Just look at the difference between them!4
That is very good to think about. However much happiness there is in the world—the happiness of this life, of the lives after this, ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara, enlightenment, all happiness—all came from… Actually, I think I’ll first start with this. However much suffering there is in the world, however many problems—yours and others, the government, the population, global, whatever—all comes from the mind. It all comes from wishing happiness for ourselves. It is that mind, the self-cherishing thought, wishing happiness just for ourselves. All problems come from that. That includes global problems; they all come from the mind, from the collective negative karma people have collected together.
Karma is mind. It is not body; it is mind. So, even global problems come from the mind. That is something that is not taught and learned in the world. That is not what most people think. They think problems come from outside. And, similarly, whatever joy and happiness there is in this world come from wishing others to be happy.
Shantideva then asks us to compare the two, the childish and the buddhas. A child here doesn’t mean a small baby but we who are mentally childish. We can be a thousand years old or two but the mind is the same. It is not different from an animal’s. The mind is not different from an ant’s, not different from a worm’s or a bird’s, in that we are only thinking of our own happiness. In that, our mind is not different from a banana slug’s. I don’t know if everybody knows the banana slug. In Dharamsala when there is a lot of rain and fog, there are always many banana slugs outside. If you are not careful you step on them and kill them. Our mind is no different from that. “The childish work only for their own benefit.” We are only thinking of our happiness. That is why such an undeveloped mind is called childish. Somebody who cherishes the I—it could be an animal, it could be an insect, it could be human being, a millionaire, a billionaire, a zillionaire, a beggar—whatever the outside difference doesn’t matter, inside the mind is not different.
On the other hand, buddhas work only for the welfare of others. “Others” are numberless; nobody is left out, not only people, even animals. No matter how tiny, nobody is left out. It doesn’t mean they only work for their relatives and friends. As Shantideva said, just look at the difference between the buddhas and us.
The Buddha was the same as us but then he changed his attitude. He not only became enlightened, ceasing all obscurations and achieving all realizations, but he has been able to already enlighten numberless sentient beings. He is enlightening numberless sentient beings now and he will enlighten numberless sentient beings in the future. So, look at the difference between the childish who work for the self and the buddhas who work for others.
How the majority of the people in the world live is exactly the same as a child. There is no real education at school, from primary school up to college, about what is needed, so everybody lives with the self-cherishing thought. Because they develop the self-cherishing thought as much as possible, there are so many problems. Between the leaders and the population there is so much suffering. In many countries there is no peace, no happiness, just suffering.
For the rest of the world, developing the self-cherishing thought, ignorance, anger and attachment is so important. The immediate thing is attachment. But now, you are coming here to subdue the mind. Here, you meditate on the shortcomings of the self-cherishing thought and the benefits of cherishing others, the ultimate good heart. That is the most important meditation, the most important Dharma practice. It is unbelievable, unbelievable. From your ultimate good heart cherishing others, you not only achieve temporary happiness—this life’s happiness and future lives’ happiness—while you are in samsara, but also ultimate happiness, not just liberation from samsara forever but also peerless happiness, buddhahood, the total cessation of obscurations and completion of realizations. I’m forgetting what I’m talking about. What did I say?
Student: You said we are coming here to subdue the mind.
Rinpoche: Did I say to subdue the mind? That is the ultimate; that is what you need to learn, to meditate on, to practice. When your mind becomes that, you achieve all the happiness up to enlightenment. That is by the way. Then, as I mentioned before, you can bring the numberless others in the six realms temporary and ultimate happiness, up to enlightenment. You can cause all the happiness. You can cause all the happiness to every sentient being, to every hell being, hungry ghost, animal, god and demigod. That is so amazing!
Cherishing Others Is the Essence of the Dharma, the Reason You Are Here
Learning Dharma means that. I’m talking about the real essence. To help others achieve all this happiness up to enlightenment, you are here learning through meditation, listening to teachings, reflecting, meditating, and then actualizing. That is something you don’t hear in the rest of the world, at university, college, primary school, kindergarten. I haven’t gone through kindergarten and all those things but that is my guess.
The rest of the world has these problems. Even one person has all these problems, spending their whole life going to see psychiatrists and psychologists, paying a lot of money and building debts. Society has problems, countries have problems, all coming from ignorance, anger and attachment. You are here to pacify that. You have come to Kopan Monastery to attend this meditation course to pacify the negative mind that brings all the problems—all your own problems and all the global problems.
Do you understand the point? It is most important. Coming here to learn and meditate, what you are doing is the most important thing in your life, the most important thing in the world. It helps not only your current life, not only your next life, it helps hundreds and thousands, millions of lives. The benefit goes on and on; it goes on ultimately to enlightenment.
The benefit of your coming here for one month to listen and meditate goes on up to enlightenment for numberless sentient beings. You achieve enlightenment for numberless sentient beings—for every ant you see on the road, in the gompa, every bird, every animal, every dog and cat, all the people, every sentient being. You benefit everyone to free them from the oceans of suffering of samsara and bring them to peerless happiness, buddhahood.
You have come here to learn lamrim meditation, to learn to transform the child’s mind into the mind cherishing others, like the Buddha did. From ignorance, anger, attachment, you are transforming your mind into the renunciation of attachment and anger as well as by realizing the ultimate nature, emptiness only, tong pa nyi, you are transforming your mind from ignorance into wisdom.
This is the most important education, first, of course, to benefit you, but also to benefit everyone whose mind is obscured and suffering, unenlightened. Your life here is for that. You understand? That is the ultimate goal.
Therefore, I want to say to you a billion, zillion, trillion thanks for coming here to do the course. Thank you for coming here to discover this Dharma, to discover what was unknown before, what you didn’t know about how to live life. You were born a human being but didn’t know how to live your life. Your way of thinking was no difference from that of a tiger, a bear, an insect, even though you might have looked different. Here you discover the Dharma, you discover the existence which you were not aware of before.
Please don’t think, “This is too much for my mind; there are too many subjects. I want it to be simple. I’m going to run away!” That is nonsense. That is cheating yourself. Now, while you have the opportunity, you can actually learn about your life, discovering your life, your mind, learning the lamrim in particular. You can discover your life, what you were not aware of before. Then, through that, you can understand others and you can generate compassion for others. You can have wisdom, loving kindness and compassion toward others. Therefore, while you have the opportunity, you must learn as much as possible. Take the opportunity as much as possible. This is just a very short time. Don’t stay in ignorance, “Oh, I want it very simple. This is too much for me.” Thinking it is too much to learn, you run away to the Himalayan mountains, to Mount Everest. “It is better to climb Mount Everest. Even if an avalanche comes, it doesn’t matter. Even if death comes, it doesn’t matter.” You don’t think about the next life. This life is not sure. Maybe yes, maybe not. Anyway, I’m just joking.
It is a great opportunity to learn as much as possible. In the beginning you might feel like that but then, as you read and meditate on the lamrim more and more, it gets simpler and simpler. It is like that.
Shall we go up to five o’clock? And have tea and snake, snack. You’re taking precepts? Maybe there are two different Is, one I takes precepts and fasts, and one I eats as much as possible! We have five aggregates, so maybe we have five Is.
It is really of utmost important your coming here not just to learn how to meditate but to study the teachings, the lamrim meditations, even just to discover what is most important in life. Only then can you understand how to live your life, how your life was in the past, and now how you should live positively to benefit not only yourself but all the numberless beings, as I mentioned before.
So, I want to say, coming to Kopan to do this meditation course, this is the best. If you want to help the world, to bring peace, coming here to do the meditation course, to learn Dharma, is the best. You yourself have to have a good heart to bring perfect peace and happiness to the world; that is the best.
What you are doing here is the opposite of what the rest of the world does. What the people of the rest of the world do only results in harm to themselves and others, to so much suffering. But here, not only do you bring temporary happiness to your family, to your country, to the world, but also ultimate happiness, the total cessation of oceans of suffering, to the world, to the sentient beings.
Then, you are here especially to discover how to achieve bodhicitta, the Mahayana path to enlightenment, like on TV there is the Discovery Channel. You have come to discover you are able to bring enlightenment to the world, to sentient beings. In a large way, there are the six-realms’ sentient beings, and in a small way, there are the sentient beings of this world.
So, you are most unbelievably, unbelievably fortunate. You are the most unbelievably fortunate, coming here this time to Kopan, all the way from the West, coming inside the machine, the airplane with the gas and all that, allowing it to somehow fly from the West to the East by crossing the Atlantic Ocean, this very deep ocean, to come to Nepal, this third world country.
Actually, I just read a story about Swayambunath, where there is a high mountain. A long time ago, even before the Buddha, when the second buddha of the one thousand buddhas of the fortunate eons happened, Sertup [Kanakumuni]. Shakyamuni Buddha is the fourth one. What happened in this buddha’s time, basically a rang jung, a self-arisen stupa happened in Swayambunath mountain; all the buddhas’ holy mind was embodied in a crystal stupa. The Buddha predicted this high mountain. This stayed there for a long time so gradually more and more dirt accumulated, which became Swayambunath mountain. This is the reason people don’t go on the top of that stupa. But I heard Padmasambhava built a stupa when he came from Tibet to purify the land. Tibet is an unbelievable place for spirits, so he subdued them, gave them samaya to be protectors. That is one story.
I don’t know if everybody thinks that way, I’m not sure. That is the main reason why the great holy beings circumambulate the bottom of the mountain. In Tibet Kachen Yeshe Gyaltsen, a great lama, like the sun and moon in this world that people and animals can enjoy by shining, did work for numberless sentient beings. He gave so many unbelievable teachings. He did one hundred thousand full-length prostrations, going around the mountain. A monk showed me where he rested. I’m not going to tell the story here. This lama and the Kopan course have a big connection.
Kopan’s Fifty Courses Happened Because Rinpoche Read Yeshe Gyaltsen’s Book
How many Kopan course have there been? [Ven. Roger: Fifty.] Fifty. So many because of this connection, by my reading a little bit Kachen Yeshe Gyaltsen’s lojong chenmo, great thought transformation teaching, these courses happened.
In Lama Yeshe’s time, Lama used to come when the people’s mind went down. Because I taught so much on hell realm suffering, the shortcomings of samsara and attachment, people’s mind went down. They come here to Kopan because they were suffering, and here there were deeper sufferings! Then, after some time, Lama would come and bring smiles and light. He would lift up their minds. I was the one who brought them down and Lama was the one who lifted them up.
Up to the seventh course, people told me I did such a wonderful course, but in my heart I was thinking it was Lama Yeshe. Up to the seventh course I always thought it was Lama Yeshe, not me. Then, after the seventh course, I don’t know, I think something went wrong, like a machine that broke, then I lost that feeling. Yes, of course, it had to be like that because I don’t know the Dharma.
I was in Buxa. When India was under British control this was where Mahatma Gandhi-ji and Jawaharlal Nehru, the ex-prime minister, were imprisoned. I was there eight years, but I was a child, like children playing.
Then, another high lama, Je Drubkhangpa, also did a hundred thousand full-length prostrations around Swayambunath. The main reason is that there is a stupa in the mountain.
Nepal does not look like the West, very clean and tidy, developed. It is not like that. It is very old and kind of a third world country, but I see from the scriptures this place is a holy place, an unbelievably blessed holy place. There are so many unbelievable holy places, with stories of practitioners who achieved enlightenment, like the eighty mahasiddhas. It is an amazing, great holy place. That is why it is easy to transform your mind, easy to develop it, if you learn Dharma here in Nepal, if you practice and meditate here. There have always been buddhas and bodhisattvas. It is an incredible place from very old ancient times. Physically it’s kind of dirty, but in reality it is a very great holy place, so it is very lucky to be able to come to Nepal.
Then, we pay homage to the Buddha.
[Students recite Prayers Before Teachings up to karma rabrib]
You did these verses before? Ven. Ailsa: [inaudible] Dedicate. Read it in English.
[Dedications, then tea offering. Then, the students do a mandala offering and Rinpoche recites Tibetan verses.]
Happiness Follows Us Like a Shadow
One most important thing is that you need not only an intellectual understanding of Buddhism but a daily practice. A daily practice, mindfulness, is most important. It is not just like in university where what you learn has nothing to do with your life, not just intellectual development, like investing in a computer. It is not like that.
[Someone sneezes very loudly] That is a reaction to “invest in a computer.” I said “invest in a computer,” so that was somebody saying that is ridiculous!
It’s not just that, you need mindfulness in everyday life. Even if you know a little bit of Dharma, even if you are an expert and you can recite more than one hundred volumes of the Buddha’s teachings, the Tengyur, and more than two hundred volumes of the pandits’ commentaries, even if you know a little bit of Dharma, if you don’t do this mindfulness practice, the basis of practice is not there. You might be reciting a lot of prayers and mantras, but the real transformation of the mind, the root of peace and happiness, up to enlightenment, is not there. Even if you do a lot of prayers and mantras and you look like a Buddhist, actually the heart doesn’t become Buddhist. The way you live your life outside looks Buddhist, but the heart doesn’t become Buddhist.
As I often say, the heaviest suffering in samsara, the hell suffering, comes from the mind. It comes from your own negative, impure mind, your unhealthy mind. And also the fully developed mind, in Sanskrit “buddhahood,” the total cessation of obscurations and completion of realizations, that also comes from your mind. Your hell comes from your negative mind; your enlightenment comes from your positive mind, your most positive mind.
Samsara comes from your negative mind, your wrong way of thinking, not your right way of thinking. And nirvana, the blissful state of peace for yourself, comes from your mind. Your nirvana comes from your mind. Your everyday life problems come from your own mind, your negative mind, your wrong way of thinking. And your everyday happiness and peace come from your mind, your positive mind, your correct way of thinking. It is like that.
So, everything comes from the mind. It is said in the Abhidharmakosha [Treasury of Knowledge],
Myriad worlds arise from karma.
The various worlds are born from karma; they arise from the mind. There are six principal consciousnesses and fifty-one mental factors and among them are the five mental factors that always accompany the principal consciousness, kundro nga. Among them, one is intention, sempa, which is karma. Of the five mental factors, karma refers to that mental factor, intention. Everything comes from the mind. The sun and moon, any form, the sense objects, all come from your mind. Your senses come from your mind. The imprint is left on the principal consciousness, and then it is experienced out. So, forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tangible objects all come from the mind. Any bad or ugly things come from a negative imprint of a negative karmic action left on the consciousness that continues from life to life. And beautiful forms, sounds—music you like—smells, tastes, tangible objects, all the things you enjoy come from a positive mind, an imprint left by a past positive karma. Every day everything you experience—forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tangible objects—everything you have experienced from beginningless rebirths, what you are experiencing now, and what you will experience in the future, it all comes from your mind. This subject is one of the biggest foundations of Buddhism. It is not just blind faith; it is logical.
For example, the Buddha mentioned in Dhammapada,
Mind precedes all mental states.
Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought.
If with an impure mind a person speaks or acts
Suffering follows him like the wheel that follows the foot of the ox.Mind precedes all mental states.
Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought.
If with a pure mind a person speaks or acts
Happiness follows him like his never-departing shadow.5
Phenomena are created by the mind; it is the principal and preliminary. It means mind itself comes before actions of body and speech, also action of mind. If you talk with a bad heart, suffering arises like the wheel and the ox. In Nepal and India, after the ox there are the wheels of the, what do you say? [Student: Carriage.] Carriage, yeah. Like after the ox there is the wheel of the carriage. There are so many heavy things on top, iron bars and so forth, and the ox has to pull them. If it doesn’t, it gets hit. You can’t explain anything to it. The ox can’t move. If, no matter how much it is beaten it can’t move, then it is finished. Like that, it suffers, especially in the hot weather, when it is so unbelievably hot. We need an umbrella, we need many things under the hot sun, but the ox doesn’t have them. So like that, all that suffering comes from the mind, the negative mind, the negative karma.
When you talk, if you are generating a good heart to benefit that person, then happiness comes from that like the shadow follows the body. Wherever the body goes, the shadow follows. In the same way, there is always happiness when actions are done with a good heart, for example, speaking to somebody. When the actions of speech, of body and of mind are done with a good heart, happiness comes to you and happiness comes to others. You can think “like the shadow follows the body.” So here you see happiness comes from mind; it is clear. It comes from your good karma, your positive action. It is always like that.
Even today, anything undesirable—forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tangible objects—anything undesirable comes from a bad heart, because you have created negative karma with your body, speech and mind. Today anything pleasant—forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tangible objects—comes from your good heart. With that motivation, a virtuous motivation, you did actions of body, speech and mind, positive actions, it comes from that, from what was done in the past. So, everything today comes from your karma, your mind, as I mentioned, intention, sempa. It all comes from that.
Maybe we stop at four, if you go back in time.
Learn to Recognize Negative Karma and Avoid It
From birth until death, everything has come from the mind, undesirable things from your negative karma, your negative intention, and pleasant things from your positive mind, your positive karma, your positive intention, your good heart. From beginningless rebirths, all the undesirable things and all pleasant things have come from your mind. In the future it will also be the same.
Therefore, what you need to practice every day is to recognize what is negative karma—what is to be cast away, to be abandoned—and what is positive karma—the thing to practiced, good karma, the good heart. If you do actions of body, speech and mind with that, the result will only be happiness, not only temporary happiness in this life and the next life, but also ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara, and not only that, buddhahood, peerless happiness. Therefore, by understanding how everything comes from the mind, the bad and good heart, you need to practice like that.
This comes to the point, showing how Dharma practice is most important. If you want happiness Dharma practice is most important. That is the answer. In the world, people learn how to do business, economics? No? Economics. People learn in universities how to be successful in business, but when you actually start to do business, what you have learned and become expert in at university doesn’t work, it has obstacles. This person who learned at university, who learned so much information, like inputting into a computer, like feeding a computer, but when they do business, there are so many obstacles.
You have to understand why. Why? Because happiness comes from Dharma practice, from positive actions of body, speech and mind, from a good heart. And failure, problems, come from the negative mind, from negative actions of body, speech and mind and a bad heart. They don’t know that, they really don’t know where suffering comes from, where happiness comes from. They have no idea. The understanding that you have to abandon negative karma and practice virtue is not there. The big thing is missing.
The cause of problems, of failure at business, has not been purified. It was created in the past but you can purify it, but that person doesn’t know Dharma so it has not been purified. Therefore, instead of success they experience many problems, failure in their business.
For those who created positive actions, who have a good heart, they have power now to experience success, and so success happens. Even if you have created negative karma, you can purify it, but because they don’t know Dharma that doesn’t happen. Then, all the problems, the obstacles, arise.
I’ll just give you an example, relating to myself. In the past years I did some benefit to sentient beings, certain people or animals, and I made offerings to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Because of that, I can benefit to the world better, not only the Dharma, but whatever people need. I can say that from my experience. I can tell that from my experience, just the first thing. Like that, it is a dependent arising, a gross dependent arising. Subtle dependent arising is emptiness only, but this is gross dependent arising. Happiness and success happen as a result of, depending on, a good cause. Then from a negative cause, the result is problems. So just using myself as an example, it is like that.
Perception, Inference and Very Hidden Phenomena
His Holiness used to give this example. Because you see smoke coming from a house you know there is fire there. The smoke is direct perception [and the fire is valid inference]. More difficult than that is knowing the age of the person living in the house. Then, more difficult than that is what the person is thinking. Similar to that, among existents, there are easy ones, more difficult ones and then the most difficult ones.
There is direct perception—like seeing smoke—and inferential reason—like inferring fire from seeing the smoke. For example, sound is impermanent because it is chepa [a product], which means it is born through causes and conditions. The characteristic of a product is that which arises from the control of causes and conditions. So, the proof that sound is impermanent is this: because it is chepa [a product], it has to be impermanent. Or you can say sound is impermanent because it is changing within a second, even within a second, by causes and conditions. So that is the meaning, the very subtle meaning of impermanence. That understanding that sound is impermanent comes by depending on logic.
For example, the self, the I, has no true existence. The I doesn’t exist from its own side, or it doesn’t exist by itself. To put it in a simple way, the I is not a real I. That which appears to you and which you always believe or apprehend, it is not that. The I that exists is what exists in mere name; it is not the real I that always appears to your hallucinated mind and which you always believe. That is because it is a dependent arising—not a gross dependent arising but a subtle dependent arising. The I is not real in the way it appears to you and the way you believe it to be.
I will just mention that the I exists in mere name. Why? Because it is a subtle dependent arising. Because there is the basis. The valid base to be labeled I, the aggregates, exists, therefore, the I exists. The I exists in mere name, merely labeled by the mind. Due to inferential reasoning you discover that, you realize that.
There is the most difficult level of understanding, which is karma. The result of having made charity to other sentient beings in the past is having wealth in this life. You did charity, so later you experience the result, wealth. The past life could be a billion, zillion, trillion eons ago, just the life before this, in this same life, or even yesterday. If the charity you made yesterday was very powerful, the result you get today is wealth. Or if you made charity in this life, the result will be wealth in the next life.
Practicing pure morality in a past life results in receiving a human body this life. We all have a human body. That’s because in a past life we practiced morality and made prayers to receive a human body. It could have been a billion, zillion, trillion eons ago, or it could have been the life before this. From pure morality, the result is a deva or human body, the body of a happy migrating being.
The Omniscient One, the Buddha, explained the subject of karma, of action and result. The Omniscient One, who had no obscurations and completed all the realizations, who achieved buddhahood, explained it like this. That is how you come to know what to practice to achieve wealth and receive a higher rebirth in the next life. It is the same for liberation from samsara and buddhahood; you have to create the cause. The Omniscient One explained karma like this and no other omniscient being contradicts this. All the numberless buddhas see the same thing that Guru Shakyamuni Buddha explained. There is no contradiction by another omniscient mind; they all see that karma. That very hidden phenomenon is the most difficult thing to understand among phenomena.
With Problems Don’t Blame External Phenomena
Here is a very, very important point. When you experience problems, you always blame the outside, either the elements or sentient beings. You point the finger, you put the blame outside. Now you can see, there is no one to point to outside to blame; that is totally wrong. All the problems come from inside; they come from the mind, a negative mind, a self-cherishing thought, a bad heart. From that you create negative actions and problems come. Whenever you have problems, immediately remember they come from the mind.
The problem is telling you that you have to purify the negative karma and pay attention to practicing a good heart. It emphasizes that to you. And by experiencing the problem now, the benefit is that it purifies past negative karma and in the future there will be happiness like the sun shining.
The Kadampa Geshe Kharag Gomchung said that you should therefore rejoice in the suffering, thinking, “It is so good that I have this problem,” instead of, “I have this and that, like cancer, and that is bad.” Rather than putting yourself down, thinking you are hopeless, you rejoice. By experiencing the negative result, it finishes the past negative karma and in the future the result will be happiness. So, you rejoice in suffering, thinking how good it is to experience suffering.
And your problem is also educating you to generate compassion for other sentient beings. Recognizing how they are suffering helps you generate compassion for them and, if you are able to generate compassion for even one person or animal, there is enlightenment for you.
Like Asanga who did a retreat for twelve years but didn’t see Maitreya Buddha. Then, when he saw a wounded dog on the road, full of maggots, he generated compassion, and took the maggots from the dog with his tongue. Then his karma to see the dog, his impure vision, was finished, and he saw Maitreya Buddha. He no longer saw the dog but saw Maitreya Buddha instead. He then received teachings in Tushita pure land for one morning, which is fifty human years, and when he returned he wrote five commentaries which have been the cause of numberless sentient beings becoming enlightened. That is what happened by one person generating compassion for one sentient being. If you generate compassion there is enlightenment; if you don’t generate compassion there is no enlightenment for you.
I will stop here.
Dedications
Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me, all the three-time merits collected by numberless sentient beings and numberless buddhas, in the three times, may bodhicitta be generated in the hearts of all sentient beings, in the hearts of all the sentient beings in this world, in the hearts of all sentient beings in Nepal, in the hearts of all sentient beings, the students of FPMT, all the students and all those who rely on me, who I promised to pray for, whose name was given to me, in the hearts of all of us here including our family members, those who are dead and those who are living, in everybody’s heart to generate bodhicitta and in whose heart bodhicitta has been generated may it increase.
Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me, all the three-time merits collected by numberless sentient beings and numberless buddhas, all these merits which exist in mere name, may the I, who exists in mere name, achieve buddhahood, which exists in mere name, and lead all the sentient beings, who exist in mere name, to that buddhahood, which exists in mere name, by myself alone, who exists in mere name.
Notes
1 Shantideva, ch. 8, v. 131. Translated by Stephen Batchelor. 2011. Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives. [Return to text]
2 Ch. 8, v. 120. [Return to text]
3 In other teachings Rinpoche has said that it was Queen Victoria. [Return to text]
4 Ch. 8, vv. 129–30. [Return to text]
5 Dhammapada, ch. 1 (Pairs), vv. 1–2. From accesstoinsight.com, accessed 03/19/19. [Return to text]
