Generating the Bodhimind
His Holiness Kyabje Ling Rinpoche
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Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, the senior tutor of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, was
the 97th holder of the Ganden throne and thus head of the Gelug tradition
of Tibetan Buddhism. He was ordained by the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, to whom
his predecessor had also been tutor. This teaching was given at Tushita
Mahayana Meditation Centre on November 14, 1979. Edited by Nicholas Ribush
from an oral translation by Lama Gelek Rinpoche. From Teachings at
Tushita, edited by Nicholas Ribush with Glenn H. Mullin, Mahayana
Publications, New Delhi, 1981. A new edition of this book is in
preparation. Tushita Mahayana Meditation Centre is the FPMT centre in New
Delhi, India.
The enlightened attitude, the bodhimind that has love and compassion as
its basis, is the essential seed producing the attainment of buddhahood.
Therefore it is a subject that should be approached with the pure thought,
"May I thus gain enlightenment in order to be of greatest benefit to the
world."
However, there are but very small spiritual effects in hearing teachings
on the bodhimind if we lack a certain spiritual foundation. Consequently,
most teachers insist that disciples cultivate various preliminary
practices within themselves before approaching this higher precept. If we
wish to go to university, we must first learn to read and write. While
merely hearing about meditation on love, compassion and the bodhimind does
leave a favorable imprint on our stream of consciousness, for the teaching
to produce a definite inner transformation we trainees should first
meditate extensively on the preliminaries (such as the preciousness of the
human opportunity, death and its significance, the nature of karma and
samsara, refuge, and the higher trainings in ethics, meditation and
wisdom).
If we wish to attain the state of the full enlightenment of buddhahood as
opposed to the lesser enlightenment of arhatship, our innermost practice
must be cultivation of the bodhimind. Were we instead to make meditation
on emptiness our innermost practice, there would be the possibility of
falling into the arhat's nirvana instead of gaining buddhahood. This
teaching is given in the saying, "When the father is the bodhimind and the
mother is wisdom, the child joins the caste of buddhas." In intercaste
marriages in ancient India, children would adopt the caste of the father,
regardless of whether the mother was of higher or lower caste. Therefore
the bodhimind is like the father: if one cultivates the bodhimind, one
enters the caste of buddhas.
Although the bodhimind is the primary force producing buddhahood,
bodhimind as the father must unite with wisdom, or meditation on
emptiness, as the mother, in order to produce a child able to accomplish
buddhahood. One without the other will not bring full enlightenment. The
bodhimind is the essential energy that produces buddhahood, yet throughout
its stages of development it should be applied to meditation on emptiness.
In the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras, where Buddha spoke most extensively on
emptiness, we are constantly reminded to place our meditations on
emptiness within the context of the bodhimind.
What precisely is the bodhimind? It is the mind strongly characterized by
the aspiration, "For the sake of all sentient beings I must attain the
state of full enlightenment." It is easy to repeat the words of this
aspiration to ourselves but the bodhimind is something much deeper than
this. It is a quality within the mind systematically cultivated by one of
a number of methods, such as those called "Six Causes and One Effect," or
"Exchanging Self (Awareness) for (Awareness of) Others."
Merely holding in mind the thought, "I must attain enlightenment for the
sake of benefiting others" without first cultivating the prerequisite
causes, stages and basic foundations of this thought will not give birth
to the bodhimind. For this reason the venerable Atisha (11th century) once
asked, "Do you know anyone with bodhimind not born from meditation on love
and compassion?" What benefits arise through having generated the
bodhimind? If we know what qualities good food has we will attempt to
obtain, prepare and eat it. Similarly, when we hear of the efficacy of the
bodhimind we shall seek to learn the methods and practices by which it is
generated.
The immediate benefit of having given birth to the bodhimind within our
mindstream is that we enter the great vehicle leading to buddhahood and
gain the title of bodhisattva, a son of the buddhas. It does not matter
what we look like, how we dress, how wealthy or powerful we are, whether
or not we have clairvoyance or miraculous powers, or how learned we are:
if we have generated the bodhimind we are bodhisattvas, and regardless of
our other qualities, if we do not have the bodhimind we are not
bodhisattvas. A being with the bodhimind who incarnates as an animal is
respected by all the buddhas as being a bodhisattva.
The great sages of the lesser vehicle possess innumerably wondrous
qualities, yet someone who has developed merely the initial stages of the
bodhimind surpasses them in terms of his nature. This is likened to the
baby son of a universal monarch who, although only an infant possessing no
qualities of knowledge or power, is granted a higher status than any
scholar or minister in the empire.
In terms of conventional benefits, all the happiness and goodness that
exists is a product of bodhimind. The buddhas are born from bodhisattvas,
but the bodhisattvas are born from the bodhimind. As a result of the birth
of the buddhas and bodhisattvas, great waves of enlightened energy spread
throughout the universe, influencing sentient beings to create positive
karma. This positive karma in turn brings them much benefit and happiness.
On the one hand, the mighty stream of enlightened and enlightening energy
issues from the wisdom body of the buddhas, but as the buddhas are born
from bodhisattvas and bodhisattvas from the bodhimind, the ultimate source
of the universal reservoir of goodness and happiness is the bodhimind
itself.
How can we develop the bodhimind? There are two major methods, as
mentioned above. The first of these, the "Six Causes and One Effect,"
applies six causal meditations-recognizing that all sentient beings were
once one's own mother; the kindness of a mother; the wish to repay such
kindness; love; compassion; and the extraordinary thought of universal
responsibility-to produce one result: the bodhimind. The second technique
is a meditation whereby one directly changes self-cherishing into the
cherishing of others.
In order to practice either of these methods of developing the bodhimind
we must first develop a sense of equanimity toward all living beings. We
must transcend seeing some beings as close, some as alien and some as
merely unknown strangers. Until we have this equanimity toward all beings,
meditation to develop bodhimind will not be effective. For example, if we
wish to paint frescoes on a wall we must first remove any cracks or lumps
from its surface. Similarly, we cannot draw the image of the bodhimind
within ourselves until the mind's view has been made clean from the
distortions of seeing others in terms of friend, enemy and stranger.
The way we impute this discrimination upon others is quite automatic, and
as a result of it, when we see someone we have labeled as 'friend,'
attachment arises within us and we respond with warmth. Why have we
labeled him as 'friend'? Only because on some level or other he has
benefited or supported us. Alternatively, whenever we encounter someone
whom we have labeled as 'enemy, aversion arises within us and we respond
with coldness. The reason will be because he has once harmed or threatened
us in some way. Again, when encountering a stranger we simply have no
feelings toward him.
Yet if we examine this method of discrimination we quickly see that it is
an unstable process. Even in this life, people once regarded as friends
become enemies and enemies often become friends. And in the countless
lives we have taken since beginningless time while spinning on the wheel
of life there is not one sentient being who has consistently been either
our friend or enemy. Our best friend of this life could easily have been
our worst enemy in a previous incarnation, and vice versa. A friend who
mistreats us quickly becomes an enemy, and an enemy who helps us soon
becomes a new-found friend. Someone who last year was regarded as a friend
because he had been kind to us, this year harms us and is seen as an
enemy; last year's enemy this year helps us and becomes a friend. So which
one is really the friend and which one the enemy? Instead of responding to
them on the basis of the ephemeral benefit or harm they have brought us,
we should meditate that all have alternately benefited and harmed us in
the stream of past lives, and thus abandon superficial discriminations.
A root cause of this discriminating mind is the self-cherishing attitude,
the thought that considers oneself to be more important than others. As a
result of self-cherishing we develop attachment to those who help us and
aversion to those who give us problems. This in turn causes us to create
countless negative karmas in trying to overcome the 'harmers' and support
the 'helpers.' Such actions bring great suffering upon ourselves and
others, both immediately and in future lives, as these karmic seeds ripen
into suffering experiences.
There is a teaching that says, "All happiness in this world arises from
cherishing others; every suffering arises from self-cherishing." Why is
this so? From self-cherishing comes the wish to further oneself even at
others' expense. This causes all the killing, stealing, intolerance and so
forth that we see around us. As well as destroying happiness in this life,
these negative activities plant karmic seeds for a future rebirth in the
miserable realms of existence-the hell, hungry ghost and animal realms.
Self-cherishing is responsible for every conflict from a family problem to
an international war, and for all the negative karma thus created.
What are the results of cherishing others? If we cherish others we shall
not harm or kill them. This is conducive to our own long life. When we
cherish others we are open and empathetic with them, and live in
generosity. This is a karmic cause of our own future prosperity. If we
cherish others, even when someone harms or makes problems for us we are
able to abide in love and patience, a karmic cause of having a beautiful
form in future lives. In short, every auspicious condition arises from the
positive karmas generated by cherishing others. These conditions
themselves bring joy and happiness, and in addition they act as the causes
of and circumstances leading to nirvana and buddhahood.
How? To gain nirvana one must master the three higher trainings: moral
discipline, meditation and wisdom. Of these the first is the most
important because it is the basis for the development of the other two.
The essence of moral discipline is abandoning any action that brings harm
to others. Anyone who cherishes others more than he cherishes himself will
not find this discipline difficult. His mind will be calm and peaceful,
which is conducive to both meditation and wisdom.
Looking at it another way, cherishing others is the proper and noble
approach to take. In this life everything that comes to us is directly or
indirectly due to the kindness of others. We buy food from others in the
market; the clothing we wear and the houses in which we dwell depend upon
the assisting participation of others. And for attaining the ultimate
goals-nirvana and buddhahood-we are completely dependent upon others:
without them we would not be able to meditate upon love, compassion, trust
and so forth, and thus would be unable to generate spiritual experience.
Also, any meditation teaching we receive has come from the Buddha through
the kindness of sentient beings. The Buddha taught only to benefit
sentient beings; if there were no sentient beings he would not have
taught. Therefore, in his Bodhisattvacaryavatara, Shantideva comments that
in terms of kindness, the sentient beings are equal to the buddhas.
Sometimes, mistakenly, people have respect and devotion for the buddhas
but dislike sentient beings. We should appreciate sentient beings as
deeply as we do the buddhas themselves.
If we look at happiness and harmony we will find its cause to be universal
caring. The cause of unhappiness and disharmony is the self-cherishing
attitude.
At one time the Buddha was an ordinary person like ourselves. Then he gave
up self-cherishing for universal caring and entered the path to
buddhahood. Because we still hold the self-cherishing mind we are left
behind in samsara, having benefited neither ourselves nor others.
The Jataka Tales (Previous Lives of Buddha) relate that in one earlier
incarnation, the Buddha had been a huge turtle who took pity on several
shipwreck victims and carried them to shore on his back. Once ashore the
exhausted turtle fell into a faint but as he slept he was attacked by
thousands of ants. Soon the biting of the ants woke the turtle up, but
when he saw that if he moved he would kill innumerable creatures, he
remained still and offered his body to the insects as food. This is the
depth to which the Buddha cherished living beings. Many of Ashvagosha's
Jataka Tales are dedicated to relating similar accounts of the Buddha's
previous lives, in which the importance of cherishing others is
exemplified. The Wish-Fulfilling Tree has 108 such stories.
Essentially, self-cherishing is the cause of every undesirable experience,
and universal caring is the cause of every happiness. The experiences of
the lower realms of existence, all the suffering of mankind and every
interference to spiritual practice are caused by self-cherishing, and
every happiness of this and future lives comes from universal caring. The
subtle limitations of lesser enlightenment are also caused by
self-cherishing.
We should contemplate the benefits of cherishing others and try to develop
an open, loving attitude toward all living beings. This should not be an
inert emotion but should be characterized by great compassion-the wish to
separate others from their suffering. When we meet with a being in sorrow
our reaction should be like that of a mother witnessing her only child
caught in a fire or fallen into a terrible river: our main thought should
be to help others. Toward those in states of suffering we should think,
"May I help separate them from their suffering," and for those in states
of happiness we should think, "May I help maintain their happiness." This
attitude should be directed equally toward all beings. Some people feel
great compassion for friends or relatives in trouble but none for
unpleasant people or enemies. This is not spiritual compassion, it is
merely a form of attachment. True compassion does not discriminate between
beings; it regards all with an equal emotion.
Similarly, love is the desire to maintain the happiness of all beings
impartially, regardless of whether we like them or not. Spiritual love is
of two main types: that merely possessing equanimity and that possessing
the active wish to maintain others' happiness. When we meditate repeatedly
on how all beings have in previous lives been mother, father and friend to
us, we soon come to have equanimity toward them all. Eventually this
develops into an overwhelming wish to see all beings possess happiness and
the causes of happiness. This is great, undiscriminating love.
By meditating properly on love and compassion we produce what are called
the eight great benefits. These condense into two: producing happiness in
this and future lives for both ourselves and others, and developing along
the path to full and perfect buddhahood. It produces rebirth as a man or
god, and fertilizes the seeds of enlightenment.
In brief, we should have the wish to help others maintain their happiness
and separate from suffering regardless of whether they have acted as
friend or enemy to us. Moreover, we should develop a personal sense of
responsibility for their happiness. This is called "the special thought"
or "the higher thought" and is marked by a strong sense of responsibility
for the welfare of others. It is like taking the responsibility of going
to the market to get someone exactly what he needs, instead of just
sitting reflecting on how nice it would be if he had what he wanted. We
take upon ourselves the responsibility of actually fulfilling others'
requirements.
Then we should ask ourselves, "Do I have the ability to benefit all
others?" Obviously we do not. Who has such ability? Only an enlightened
being, a buddha. Why? Because only those who have attained buddhahood are
fully developed and fully separated from limitations: those still in
samsara cannot place others in nirvana. Even sravaka arhats or tenth level
bodhisattvas are unable to benefit others fully, for they themselves still
have limitations, but a buddha spontaneously and automatically benefits
all beings with every breath he takes. His state is metaphorically likened
to the drum of Brahma, which automatically resounds teachings to the
world. Or it is like a cloud, that spontaneously takes cooling shade and
life-giving water wherever it goes. To fulfil others' needs we should seek
to place them in the total peace and maturity of buddhahood, and to be
able to do this we ourselves must first gain buddhahood. The state of
buddhahood is an evolutionary product of the bodhimind. The bodhimind is
born from the special thought of universal responsibility-the thought to
benefit others by oneself. To drink water we must have both the desire to
drink and a container for the water. The wish to benefit others by placing
them in buddhahood is like the desire to drink, and the wish to attain
enlightenment oneself in order to benefit them in this way is like the
container. When both are present, we benefit ourselves and others.
If we hear of the meditations that generate the bodhimind and attempt to
practice them without first refining our minds with the preliminary
meditations, it is very unlikely that we shall make much inner progress.
For example, meditating on compassion without first gaining some
experience of the meditations on the four noble truths, or at least on the
truth of suffering, would lead to a merely superficial understanding. How
can we experience mature compassion, the aspiration to free all beings
from suffering, when we do not know the deeper meanings and levels of
suffering that permeate the human psyche? How can we relate to others'
suffering when we do not even know the subtle levels of frustration and
tension pervading our own being? The nature of suffering must be known in
order to know the workings of our own mind; only then shall we be in a
position to empathize with the hearts and minds of others. We must have
compassion for ourselves before we can have it for others.
Through meditation on suffering a certain amount of renunciation or
spiritual stability will be generated. This stability should be guarded
and cultivated by the various methods taught on the initial and
intermediate stages of training, which are the two main steps in
approaching the meditations on the bodhimind. As we progress in our
meditations on the suffering nature of being and on the causes of this
suffering, we begin to search for the path leading to transcendence of
imperfection. We meditate upon the precious nature and unique
opportunities of human existence, which makes us appreciate our situation.
Then we meditate upon impermanence and death, which helps us transcend
grasping at petty aspects of life and directs our minds to search for
spiritual knowledge. Because spiritual knowledge is not gained from books
or without a cause, its cause must be cultivated, which means training
properly under a fully qualified spiritual master and generating the
practices as instructed.
Merely hearing about the bodhimind is very beneficial because it provides
a seed for the development of the enlightened spirit. However, to
cultivate this seed to fruition requires careful practice. We must
progress through the actual inner experiences of the above-mentioned
meditations, and for this we require close contact with a meditation
teacher able to supervise and guide our evolution. In order for his
presence to be of maximum benefit we should learn the correct attitudes
and actions for cultivating an effective guru-disciple relationship. Then
step-by-step the seeds of the bodhimind he plants within us can grow to
full maturity and unfold the lotus of enlightenment within us.
This is but a brief description of the bodhisattva spirit and the methods
of developing it. If it inspires some interest within anyone I shall be
most happy. The basis of the bodhimind-love and compassion-is a force that
brings every benefit to both yourself and others, and if this can be
transformed into the bodhimind itself, your every action will become a
cause of omniscient buddhahood. Even if you could practice to the point of
even slightly weakening the self-cherishing attitude I would be very
grateful. Without first generating the bodhimind, buddhahood is completely
out of the question. Once the growth of the bodhimind has started, perfect
enlightenment is only a matter of time. We should try to meditate
regularly on death and impermanence and thus become a spiritual
practitioner of initial scope. Then we should develop the meditations on
the unsatisfactory nature of samsara and the three higher trainings, which
make us practitioners of medium scope. Finally, we should give birth to
love, compassion, universal responsibility and the bodhimind, thus
entering the path of the practitioner of great scope, the Mahayana, which
has full buddhahood as its goal. Relying on the guidance of a master, we
should cultivate the seeds of the bodhimind in connection with the wisdom
of emptiness and for the sake of all that lives quickly actualize
buddhahood. This may not be an easy task, but it has ultimate perfection
as its fruit.
The most important step in spiritual growth is the first: we must begin by
making a decision to avoid evil and cultivate goodness within our stream
of being. On the basis of this fundamental discipline every spiritual
quality becomes possible, even the eventual perfection of buddhahood. Each
of us has the potential to do this, each of us can become a perfect being.
All we have to do is direct our energies at learning and then
enthusiastically practicing the teachings. As the bodhimind is the very
essence of all the Buddha's teachings we should make every effort to
realize it.
Source: www.lamayeshe.com
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Update: 01-07-2003