Self-Cherishing

Points 3 and 4 Point 3: Transforming Adverse Circumstances into a Path to Enlightenment The third point looks at transforming adverse circumstances into a path to enlightenment, and it’s divided into several parts. One concerns our thoughts and the other – our actions. ...

The name of this work is The Wheel of Sharp Weapons Effectively Striking the Heart of the Foe. I pay heartfelt homage to you, Yamantaka; your wrath is opposed to the Great Lord of Death. [1] [notes by Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey: see below] (1) In jungles of poisonous plants...

General Assertions Buddhism does not assert creation or a creator. The mental continuums of all sentient beings have no beginning. “Sentient beings” are living beings that act with intention and experience happiness or unhappiness as a result. Like souls in Islam, however, the...

Part One: Contrasting Bodhisattvas with Ordinary Beings Two Traditions for Developing Conventional Bodhichitta To destroy self-grasping and self-cherishing and to attain enlightenment, all mind training texts emphasize tonglen. This is the practice of giving and taking as...

Brief Review We started our discussion of the Eight Verses of Mind Training by Langri Tangpa, with the first verse: (1) May I always cherish all limited beings by considering how far superior they are to wish-granting gems for actualizing the supreme aim. We discussed how...

Contrasting Bodhisattvas with Ordinary Beings The text, Wheel of Sharp Weapons, begins with Dharmarakshita contrasting bodhisattvas with ordinary beings. Bodhisattvas practice tonglen – giving and taking – taking from others the three poisonous disturbing states of mind or...

Key Elements of Deepest Bodhichitta We have spoken about how to develop deepest bodhichitta, and we’ve seen that it is very important and helpful for being able to do the practice of tonglen, giving and taking. Now, we are ready to discuss the development of relative,...

The Three Objects and the Three Poisonous Attitudes The text continues with what we do after formal meditation on the tonglen giving and taking practice for developing relative bodhichitta. It says: (In regard to) the three objects, (take) the three poisonous attitudes and...

Point 5 Point five is the measure of having cleansed and trained our attitudes: If all my Dharma practice gathers into one intention; This intention is to eliminate self-cherishing. All of the various aspects of this entire literature on the seven points, as well as all other...

Cherishing Difficult People (4) Whenever I see beings instinctively cruel, overpowered by negativities and serious problems, may I cherish them as difficult to find as discovering a treasure of gems. This verse deals with how to transform negative circumstances into positive...