LPA9: Rational & Emotional Approaches to Bodhichitta

Review of Previous Sessions

We’re going through this text by Tsongkhapa, A Letter of Practical Advice on Sutra and Tantra, which he wrote to his friend the meditator Konchog-tsultrim. In it, Tsongkhapa starts with his humility, and then how we have… if he is forced to give some advice to such a great meditator as Konchog-tsultrim, he says: well, we’ve found excellent working basis of the precious human rebirth, and we’ve met with the teachings of the Buddha, and we’ve been cared for by superb spiritual masters, and we have the power of mind to discern what’s to be adopted and rejected. 

On the basis of these factors, which are things that we need to appreciate that we have — which can be very, very helpful when we’re feeling sorry for ourselves (“poor me,” and so on) and also when we’re wasting an unbelievable amount of time of this precious human life — then it’s very important to take advantage of this excellent working basis. To do so, we have to engage ourselves in the Buddha’s teachings. 

This word “engage” (’jug) is the same word as “to involve ourselves” and “to enter.” It’s the word that’s used in the title Bodhicharyavatara (sPyod-’jug), to engage in Buddhist behavior. It’s the specific Sanskrit word avatara, which I think I explained earlier in the course is, in Hindi, avatar; avatar is like a manifestation of something. To engage ourselves in the teachings means that we, in a sense, incarnate ourselves in the structure of the teachings, like that’s our body. We become avatars into the teachings. A word full of meaning. 

To do that, we need to rely on the teacher, and the teacher has to be fully qualified. Of all the various qualifications that the teacher has — sincere motivation, etc. —they have to be learned in three things. Tsongkhapa points out: (1) They have to know what are the pathway minds that we need to develop that will bring us liberation and enlightenment and what are not, so that they teach us the correct pathway of minds. (2) They don’t add any that are extra or leave any out. (3) They know exactly the proper order of how to teach them, and where to start, and how to apply them, and what speed to go with, and so on, with each individual student. 

The teacher has to have gained certainty about this from having been led through this course of development himself or herself by a spiritual teacher who similarly was trained. That brought in the whole topic of lineage, going all the way back to the time of the Buddha, and how important it is that each of the teachers be authentic and authentically have developed these pathways of mind, that they’ve actually developed themselves with all these realizations and so on. 

The teacher needs to have been led through this course of training by a thorough study of the classics, and we ourselves have to do that as well. The classics, the Buddhist texts — this is referring primarily to the words of the Buddha and the Indian commentaries, although one would also include the Tibetan sub-commentaries — these are not something which are in contradiction to the practice, as some people might think, but the study and practice are mutually supportive of each other, and everything in the text is meant for practice. 

Then how do we begin? We need to begin by taming our mind. (That is not only how we begin, but that’s important — to use the Buddhist idiom — at the beginning, the middle, and end. We start by trying to tame our minds. During the whole process of the path, we’re taming our minds. In the end, we have succeeded in taming our minds.) For this, we have to work first of all on the motivating mental framework. That motivation has to do, as we saw, with both the aim, the intention to achieve that aim, and then the emotional drive behind that that goes with that. 

There are three levels of motivating mental framework (or motivation for short). This is to turn away from interest in just this lifetime and have our keen interest be in the happiness of future lives. Then, on the intermediate level, to turn away from the so-called pleasures of samsara, of uncontrollably recurring rebirth, and work for liberation from that. Then, on the advanced level, to turn from interest just in ourselves — in other words, gaining liberation just for ourselves — but working for the liberation and enlightenment of everybody. 

That advanced level is not just turning away from selfishly trying to make as much money as I can for myself and being a good socialist and getting money for everybody equally. We’re not talking about that as being our Mahayana level of motivation. That is a Dharma-Lite version. The Real Thing is we’re turning away from working just for our own liberation from samsara and we’re working for liberation of everybody from samsara. It is built on the intermediate level of motivation: we are already working for our own liberation; now we have to go further. 

Then, last time, we started with a paragraph and let me just repeat it since we didn’t really finish discussing it. This has to do with the sincerity of this level of our mental framework. Tsongkhapa wrote: 

But concerning these (graded mental frameworks), suppose (for our practice) we had made (for ourselves) a deceptive foundation of having a partial, merely intellectual understanding of the verbal formulations (of them)

Referring to these mental frameworks.

and then had engaged in hearing, thinking, and meditating (on certain Dharma practices). 

This could be referring to meditation on voidness or getting single-minded concentration, or any of these sorts of things.

We might then say, with many sweet-sounding words, that “I am doing these for the sake of my future lives,” or “I am doing them because of liberation,” or “I am doing these for the benefit of limited beings.” But despite (such noble claims), I think the way in which our minds will have been working will have in fact been nothing other than one in which they have been aiming for the sake of either (benefits in) this lifetime, or for certain pleasurable fruits of uncontrollably recurring samsaric rebirth to which we have given the name liberation, or for a partial (ultimate) aim for ourselves (and not for everyone). 

This is the whole basis for my discussion of Dharma-Lite versus The Real Thing Dharma.

Therefore, to develop these motivating mental frameworks in an uncontrived manner, it is not sufficient to have merely an intellectual understanding (of them). We must meditate (in order to build them up as habits).
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