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September 1 - September 15, 2024
Activity means refraining from harming others. This is something that is universally helpful, something that all people appreciate, whether they are religious or not.
View refers to the principle of interdependence. Happiness and suffering, and the beings who experience them, do not arise without cause nor are they caused by some eternal creator. In fact, all things arise from causes corresponding to them.
When, on the other hand, we consider that everything we experience results from a complex interplay of causes and conditions, we find that there is no single thing to desire or resent, and it is more difficult for the afflictions of attachment or anger to arise. In this way, the view of interdependence makes our minds more relaxed and open.
We should avoid even the smallest negative actions, and we should perform even the most insignificant positive actions without underestimating their value. The reason for this is that the happiness we all want and the suffering we all try to avoid are produced precisely by our actions, or karma.
On this basis, an action is called negative or evil if it results in suffering, which is something we wish to avoid. It is called positive or virtuous if it results in happiness, which is something we want.
The antidote to hatred is meditation on love. To overcome attachment, we should meditate on the ugliness of what attracts us. The antidote to pride is meditation on the skandhas, or aggregates. To counteract ignorance we should concentrate on the movement of the breath and on interdependence. The root of the mind’s turmoil is in fact ignorance, on account of which we fail to understand the true nature of things. The mind is brought under control by purifying our mistaken notion of reality. This is the teaching of the Buddha. It is through training the mind that we can transform the way in
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the sūtras mention the four reliances: Do not rely on individuals, rely on the teachings. Do not rely on the words, rely on the meaning. Do not rely on the adapted meaning, rely on the ultimate meaning. Do not rely on intellectual knowledge, rely on wisdom.
The term those who go in bliss is synonymous with Buddha and is a translation of the Sanskrit sugata. This word is made up of two elements: sukhā meaning “bliss,” and gata meaning “arrived.”
The attainment of this blissful state has two aspects: realization and elimination. As the mind develops spiritual qualities and gets rid of all that hinders them, it increasingly gains the ability to see clearly the nature of phenomena, until it perceives the ultimate nature without any obstruction. This perception of phenomena as they really are is the wisdom that knows everything without the least misconception. It is a state of wisdom that cannot be veiled, nor can it deteriorate. The aspect of realization refers to meditation on the absence of reality in phenomena. This leads to the
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Finally, when this antidote has reached its full strength, the nonconceptual wisdom that sees the lack of self arises.
Once the negative emotions have been eliminated by means of nonconceptual wisdom, they are eliminated forever. They cannot recur even in situations that formerly provoked them. This is known as irreversible elimination. When the extraordinary nonconceptual wisdom is perfected through practice and all obstacles to it have been removed through the antidote, we then say that elimination is complete. These three aspects—perfect, irreversible, and complete—are the three characteristics of realization through elimination.
A Sugata who has the dharmakāya starts by abandoning negative emotions, at which point he reaches the first of ten levels of the Bodhisattva path.11 He then proceeds along the path to Buddhahood until he reaches the level of no more learning. At that moment, he realizes the perfectly pure absolute space, the absolute nature, and the absolute body, or dharmakāya. As obscurations to ignorance fall away, all the qualities of primordial wisdom appear, in particular the twenty-one pure qualities of the dharmakāya. What is left after all the obscurations have been eliminated is called primordial
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The realization aspect of the dharmakāya is the culmination of the truth of the path, while its elimination aspect is the culmination of the truth of cessation. Together these two truths constitute the Dharma, the second of the Three Jewels in which we take refuge. The dharmakāya is thus the ultimate aspect of the Dharma. The sambhogakāya and nirmānakāya, which manifest from the dharmakāya, constitute the Sangha of beings who have have attained the path of no more learning. And the Buddha, who is free of defects and endowed with all good qualities, is the one who possesses the truth of the
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And the heirs of his mind are the Bodhisattvas. These last are referred to as his principal heirs, for they aspire, for the benefit of all beings, to all the sublime qualities of Buddhahood, applying the unmistaken methods of the path of compassion and emptiness.
The training of a Bodhisattva consists of the practice of the six or ten pāramitās.12 This can be summarized as three disciplines: avoiding harmful actions, adopting virtuous actions, and working for the benefit of beings. Shāntideva describes this path in three stages: entrance, training, and accomplishment.
What do we mean by Bodhisattva? Bodhi means enlightenment, the state devoid of all defects and endowed with all good qualities. Sattva refers to someone who has courage and confidence and who strives to attain enlightenment for the sake of all beings.
This wish for perfect enlightenment for the sake of others is what we call bodhichitta, and it is the starting point on the path.
Driven by the desire to help beings, one thinks, For their sake, I must attain enlightenment! Such a thought forms the entrance to the Mahāyāna. Bodhichitta, then, is a double wish: to attain enlightenment in itself, and to do so for the sake of all beings.
But without having the certainty that enlightenment exists and that it is accessible, one will never accomplish it.
All phenomena are by nature empty, devoid of true existence.
But what is our perception of phenomena at the moment? What Nāgārjuna describes is not what we actually perceive at present. What we experience is just the opposite. Rather than perceiving phenomena as empty, we see everything as existent and real.
then we realize that our perceptions hitherto have not corresponded at all to the way things really are and that we have been ignorantly clinging to our mistaken way of seeing things. Moreover, this ignorance has been the root of desire and hatred; in other words, it is the very root of saṃsāra.
Can we get rid of this misunderstanding completely? It is said: The nature of mind is clear and luminous, But obscurations are adventitious. Although these obscurations may have been present for a long time, they are not of the same nature as the mind. So, as the antidote—the correct perception of things—develops, these obscurations can be completely dispelled.
Nothing can alter this natural quality, which is the innate character of the mind itself. The belief in the reality of things is based on incorrect perception and is quite contrary to the mind’s nature. But because of present conditions and ways of perceiving that have long grown habitual, we tend to experience things erroneously.
Seeing and being aware is the nature of the mind itself. As long as the mind exists, it has the ability to know, but this ability does not reveal itself until all obscurations have been removed. This is what it means to attain enlightenment. If we think along these lines, the desire for enlightenment will grow in us.
As for the wish to work for the benefit of others, this comes from realizing that, just like ourselves, all beings, not just humans, want to be happy and not to suffer. In fact, we all have compassion: we want to free others from suffering. And to some degree, we all love and want others to be happy. These feelings may not be very strong or extensive, but everyone has them in some measure.
They are not imprisoned by saṃsāra, as they have seen its imperfections. Because of their great compassion, they do not linger in nirvāṇa. As they know that there are defects in both, they aspire to an enlightenment that transcends these two extremes.
To turn away and free ourselves, we must reflect on what is considered to be the suffering of saṃsāra this will give rise to the desire to free others. Moreover, if we are to overcome our hopes and ambitions with respect to future existences, we must first confront our clinging to this present life. This is something we can train in, step by step.
Bodhichitta is a very good state of mind, imbued with wisdom, in which kindness is combined with the highest intelligence.
When we meet others, we do not feel claustrophobic and distant. On the contrary, we feel close to people.
For those who have not yet generated bodhichitta, the first three chapters of the Bodhicharyāvatāra explain how to do so. Then, to prevent bodhichitta from declining, there follow the instructions in the chapters on carefulness, attentiveness, and patience. After this, the chapters on endeavor, meditative concentration, and wisdom describe how bodhichitta can be continuously developed. Finally, the tenth and concluding chapter discusses how to share and dedicate this bodhichitta that has been generated, protected from decline, and increasingly developed.
Because of our past karma, it is very rare and difficult to have a positive mind, while it is all too easy to have negative thoughts, since this is what we have been used to. So we should nurture positive thoughts,
Aspiration is simply wishing to attain enlightenment for all beings, the desire to pursue the path. Application begins with taking the vow of bodhichitta and promising to put it into action. Aspiration is like simply wanting to go somewhere; application is actually going.
From the moment the vow is taken, whatever a Bodhisattva does, whether walking or sleeping, will create great merit simply through the sheer power of the intention.
We should therefore take great care to protect ourselves from this sort of fault and consider others as our teachers. And we should never, without a very specific reason, point out other people’s faults. As the omniscient Gendun Drubpa said, “Be grateful to all beings and regard all practitioners with pure vision. Subdue the enemy within.”
Āryadeva,16 Nāgārjuna’s principal disciple, said: First be rid of evil, Then be rid of self, Finally be rid of thoughts. Wise is the one who knows this.
To obtain a human life, which is a fortunate rebirth, it is necessary to avoid the nonvirtuous actions that will lead to birth in the lower realms of saṃsāra.
“Then be rid of self.” Having forsaken negative actions, we have to abandon their causes, which are negative emotions. The only antidote to these is the wisdom that knows the nonreality of things. According to Nāgārjuna and his spiritual descendants, the root of negative emotions is the ignorance of believing that phenomena are real.
we must first abandon belief in the existence of the individual as an entity, or self.
“Finally be rid of thoughts.” To attain enlightenment, we have to remove not only negative emotions and their causes but also the habits that obscure knowledge. Once we annihilate these obscurations, we attain omniscience. The path leading to this is the wisdom that understands that things have no reality. Through meditation we can establish firmly the view of emptiness. This extraordinary view, impregnated with compassion and combined with the accumulation of merit, completely destroys the veils that obscure knowledge.
“Wise is the one who knows this.” This refers to those who know the different stages of the path and its essential points and who practice them in the correct order so that they attain full realization.
If we wish to help beings, we have to be able to liberate them from suffering and dispel their ignorance. This means that we ourselves must have true realization, and this can only be achieved through endeavor and the development of clear insight and mental calm.
We then recite the Seven Branch Prayer, with our thoughts directed to the ideal of bodhichitta.18 The first of the Seven Branches is homage:
This is followed by the branch of offering:
Here we make an offering of everything we have along with everything else in the universe, things that are owned by someone and those that do not belong to anyone. Then we offer our own bodies. Whether or not we have a perfect body, we should offer it sincerely. This is a method of turning away from negative actions on the physical level.
With all these offerings it is not quantity but quality that counts. Quality concerns both the materials and the intention with which they are offered.
And according to the Entrance to the Middle Way: The infinite variety of beings and universes Has been created by the mind. All universes and beings are the result of karma.
Likewise, the places that we will experience in future rebirths will be the outcome of the karma that we share with the other beings living there.
Prostrations are an antidote to arrogance and conceit. Before teachers begin teaching, they prostrate to the throne on which they will sit. They do this as a guard against conceit. Here we must differentiate between conceit and self-confidence. Conceit is undesirable, whereas we need to have self-confidence and the inner strength that comes from it.
The branch of confession is preceded by refuge.
