Review of Previous Sessions
We are going through this letter that Tsongkhapa wrote to his friend and meditator Konchog-tsultrim in which he answers this fellow meditator’s request to give some practical advice on how to actually practice sutra and tantra. And after a very humble beginning in which Tsongkhapa says he really has nothing very much to say, nevertheless he goes on to give some advice. A quick review of what we’ve covered so far:
He says that we have a wonderful situation that we’re in. We have the precious human rebirth, we’ve met with the teachings of the Buddha, we have been cared for great spiritual masters, and in addition, we have the distinctive feature of a human rebirth, which is the power of mind to discern what’s to be adopted and to be rejected. We need to take advantage of that excellent working basis. To do this, we have to engage ourselves in the Buddha’s teachings. For that, just to have kind thoughts is not enough. Which is a very important point, that in terms of the teachings we… What makes it a Buddha’s teaching is the four noble truths and the whole striving for liberation and enlightenment the way it’s defined in Buddhism. For this, we have to rely on a spiritual teacher.
The spiritual teacher has to be able to know very well the essential nature of the pathway minds that we develop (in other words, what is something that we need to develop and what is not) and to know their definite count (which means not to add anything and not leave anything out) and to know the graded order of how to apply them to each student’s level of understanding and how to lead them in a progressive order from there. The teacher also has to have gained these qualities and this experience from their own personal experience of having been led themselves through this whole spiritual path and process by their own spiritual teachers and have been led in accordance with the great classics. Tsongkhapa makes the strong point that there is no difference between Dharma for practice and Dharma for study, that everything in the texts is there specifically for the purpose of study.
As to how to actually begin the practice, Tsongkhapa quotes Nagarjuna and Aryadeva saying that the main thing is to tame our minds. Regarding taming our minds, we need to have the motivating mental framework. That’s what we start with. We saw a motivating mental framework, what’s usually translated as motivation, is a complex of having a certain aim and a reason for reaching that goal (what are we going to do with that goal) and then some sort of emotional driving force that will lead us to achieve that goal, not just intention. All of that is the motivating mental framework.
For this we have the graded presentation of this according to lam-rim — stages of the pathway minds. First, turning away from having our concern be primarily in this lifetime, and thinking in terms of benefiting future lives, and particularly to continue having precious human rebirth so we can continue along the spiritual path. That’s based, of course, on clear understanding of our individual mental continuum having no beginning and no end, therefore it’s going to continue, therefore we want to continue being able to make progress on the path.
On an intermediate level, thinking of how the way in which that mental continuum goes on is at present in a samsaric way — uncontrollably recurring rebirth under the influence of disturbing emotions and karma, the karmic consequences (or karmic aftermath) of our behavior based on disturbing emotions — and that we definitely want to get out of that. We turn from just wanting the good things of samsara to wanting to achieve liberation, and that’s based on the understanding that that mental continuum is not inherently stained by the disturbing emotions and all the karmic aftermath and the impulses of karma, that these are just fleeting stains.
Then we progress beyond that to think not only do we want to continue having precious human rebirths all the way till we gain liberation from this samsaric recurring pattern, but everybody else is in that same situation and everybody else is suffering just as we are, everybody else would like to get rid of their suffering, and so we take into consideration all the individual mental continuums of everybody. They’re all equal — the equal drive of wanting to be happy and not wanting to be unhappy. We see the interdependence of all these mental continuums and that it makes absolutely no sense, from any point of view, to want only our own liberation, because how can that occur not in relation to everybody else? Then we think in terms of working for liberation of everybody.
In order to do that, we need to be able to have a clear understanding of how to help them, what to teach, what will be the causes of their problems individually, and what will be the consequences of teaching them anything on the spiritual path, so that we know exactly what to teach them, what will be the effect on them and on everybody else that they interact with from now until they reach liberation and enlightenment.
We develop bodhichitta, which is aiming at our own future enlightenments, which haven’t happened yet, but which can happen, with compassion and love with the intention to benefit others as much as we can when we actualize that enlightened state (and all along the path, as much as we can). That is based on understanding that this mental continuum of ourselves and of everybody is not only free from the fleeting stains of the disturbing emotions and their tendencies, tendencies of karma and so on, but that they are free of the cognitive obscurations as well, not just these emotional obscurations. This aspect — which is that the mind makes things appear to exist in impossible ways as if things were isolated, existing established by themselves — is not an inherent feature of the mind. The mind doesn’t necessarily have to do that; that’s just coming from the habits of perceiving and believing in their so-called true existence as if it were truly established. Based on that understanding of the purity of the mind, then we can aim for our own future enlightenments.
We have this progression, which can be understood on many, many levels, progression of motivating mental framework. I have introduced one level of understanding it that deals with the basic purity of the nature of the mind and the purity of the mind, which, although Tsongkhapa doesn’t emphasize it here, I think is a very important aspect of it or a very helpful way of approaching it.
Then we need to — Tsongkhapa goes on — not just say with sweet-sounding words that “I’m working for liberation. I’m working for all sentient beings,” etc. That can be just mere nice words. But we really have to build up these motivations in an uncontrived manner; in other words, not in a made up, insincere manner, but in a heartfelt manner. For that, we need to meditate. Meditate (sgom) means to build up something as a beneficial habit. And for that, Tsongkhapa goes into a very wonderful discussion of how you actually meditate, how you actually build up something as a beneficial state of mind. He says that we have to discern in many ways the causes and aspects pertinent for developing each of these kinds of motivations.
What are the various causes that will lead us up to having a certain state of mind (let’s say compassion)? What does it depend on? Like, for instance, having an equal attitude toward everyone. First of all, equalizing our attitude. Or let’s say, before that even, gaining equilibrium. If we want to gain great compassion which is aimed at absolutely everybody, then we have to overcome the disturbing emotion aspect, which is being attracted to some, repelled from others, and indifferent or ignoring yet others. We have to understand our connection with others (that’s one way of doing it): everybody’s been our mother in a previous lifetime; the kindness of a mother, appreciating it; wanting to return that; developing heartwarming love (yid-’ong byams-pa) whenever we see someone based on thinking of all this kindness, that it warms our heart, we cherish them, we would feel terrible if anything bad happened to them. On that basis, we develop love, which is the wish for them to be happy and to have the causes for happiness, and that leads to compassion.
These are the causes of compassion. You have to know that. You have to know the sequence. You have to build it up on the sequence. This is what Tsongkhapa says very strongly. All these various motivating frames of mind are something that you build yourself up to. Eventually when we become familiar enough with it, having gone through the sequence of building it up over and over and over again so that we actually feel it — and we had big discussions, several of our classes, in terms of what it actually means to feel a motivation sincerely in our hearts and not just “blah, blah, blah” words — then it will come automatically, that motivating mental framework. Once we are familiar enough with it, you can just immediately generate it, and that’s called the unlabored (rtsol-med) level of a motivation. When we have unlabored bodhichitta (rtsol-med byang-sems), then we actually become a bodhisattva: we actually enter or develop the first pathway of the five pathway minds, the pathway mind of building up (tshogs-lam) (or path of accumulation).
We have to know the causes for the motivation and the aspects. The aspects would be — well, what is compassion? It’s the wish for others to be free of suffering and the causes for suffering. The aspects are all the different aspects of their suffering and all the different aspects of the causes of their suffering. We need to know all of that in order to develop compassion. And then he says that we also need to know the focal objects. What are we focusing on when we are meditating on compassion, for example? Here it would be the suffering of others, if we’re focusing on all beings and their suffering.
That’s how we meditate.
Between sessions, Tsongkhapa says, we need to look at the stainless expositions of Buddha in order to gain more and more confidence that this is the way the great masters and Buddha himself have practiced, and therefore it is something which is valid. This is the axiom of reasoning (tshad-ma’i rigs-pa, establishment by reason). We have to be convinced that this state of mind that we’re trying to develop is something which is reasonable. Does it fit in with all the teachings of the Buddha? Is it confirmed by that? Yes. Is it logical? Yes. Everybody wants to be happy, nobody wants to be unhappy; that’s logical. Are we all interconnected? Yes, that’s logical. Etc. Does it accord with our experience in terms of straightforward cognition or perception? Yes, it conforms with that: we see that when you develop compassion, that actually we are involved with others, we can help them; it brings more happiness, brings more happiness to others, more happiness to ourselves.
Then Tsongkhapa says we also need to build up positive force and cleanse away obstacles, that this is important in order to develop the conducive circumstances, supporting circumstances, and get rid of contrary factors — this entails all the preliminary practices: the prostrations and all of this sort of stuff, the cleansing practices, Vajrasattva, etc. — so that we can overcome grosser type of mental blocks that we might have.
Tsongkhapa then says we need to have all of this complete, all the defining characteristics, not just partial. We need to discern very well, he says, with individualizing discriminating awareness, all the particulars of what is detrimental for developing this state of mind and what is beneficial. Detrimental for compassion would be selfishness, not caring about others. What’s beneficial would be understanding we’re all equal, everybody wants to be happy, nobody wants to be unhappy, etc. — the interconnection of everybody.
Then he says pretty much the same thing in several different ways. He summarizes it again. If we know that our focal object is such and such and the aspects are such and such, and the way of taking them to mind… This is another point, how you regard that focal object. If it’s compassion, then we’re focusing on the suffering of others. The way that we take it to mind is with the wish for that to be gone and for us to be able to help them to remove that suffering, taking some responsibility to be able to do that. All these are aspects of how you take it to mind.
What are the mental factors that accompany this? There needs to be also confidence that we can do something, confidence that their mind is not inherently stained by all of this. In other words, we have to really understand the four noble truths. All of that: what is suffering, its causes, the stopping of suffering (in other words, there is the state in which it is stopped), and what will bring that about. Because also one aspect of compassion is that when we wish for others to be free of suffering and the causes of suffering, there should be some idea of how they could overcome that suffering. Otherwise, it’s just a nice wish. All of that is connected to compassion, then we have some confidence it’s not just an idle wish.
Then Tsongkhapa says with all of this we’ll gain confidence in our ability to actualize these practices. That’s important, that we have confidence in doing meditation and developing a state of mind that it is possible, that we are capable of doing it. Without that confidence, then, the meditation often just doesn’t go anywhere, and after a while we drop it — we have no confidence that we’re getting anywhere, that we can get anywhere.
Although Tsongkhapa doesn’t mention it, we need to be very realistic in our understanding of how progress occurs. The nature of samsara — I’ve said this many, many times to you, that the nature of samsara is that it goes up and down, so it’s going to continue to go up and down all the way to liberation, till we get out of samsara. Because it goes up and down, that means that progress is never linear. It’s never going to be the case that it gets better every day, more and more and more. This is a very important point, because what happens is that…
It’s true not only in Dharma practice. I was speaking to a psychiatrist friend of mine, and she was saying that the fault with young psychiatrists, who don’t have very much experience — and psychologists (because at least in the United States, you don’t have so much psychiatry anymore; it’s mostly psychologists and therapists and social workers and stuff like that) — is that they aren’t mature enough to realize that progress with somebody is up and down. It’s not linear. What happens is that they apply some sort of methodology with a client, with a patient, and a little bit helps, but then it goes down again and maybe the person has a relapse or something like that. The mistake is then to give up on that method and try something else, which is the mentality of a young person, an inexperienced person. Whereas if you have some more experience, you realize that of course it’s going to go up and down and you don’t give up on a method until you’ve really, really demonstrated that it’s ineffective.
You have to have a realistic understanding of a method and have confidence in it. Of course, you may, at one point, have to give up on that method, but it is very important with Dharma practice that we don’t just jump around. We’re trying one method and — like particularly if we’re practicing one Buddha-figure, one yidam, and we’re not getting anywhere with that, or we’re getting somewhere but then the practice goes down — to say, “Well, I have to get a new one, and that’ll be better.” This type of mentality. You have to stick with something. Perseverance, patience, that no matter how difficult it gets, no matter how much the up and down process hurts, nevertheless I’m going to go forward. The armor-like perseverance (go-cha’i brtson-’grus); it’s like a suit of armor that protects us from these dangers. That’s very important.
Tsongkhapa says then — this last thing here — we need to be aware of the uncommon functions of each of these motivating mental frameworks to bring about what is beneficial and to end what is detrimental. It’s another aspect, that we need to know how it functions. What is the function of developing compassion? It will help us to overcome the self-cherishing, help us to overcome a feeling of isolation, etc. It will help us to… What does it bring about? It brings about the ability to help others, to benefit others, which ultimately builds up the positive force to be able to reach liberation and enlightenment (if we think in terms of what is the benefit to us from it). That is one aspect.
He says that “Further, from thinking that developing just some of these motivating frameworks is not enough for in fact we need to generate the entire progression, then for certain it will come about that we will never forsake any of the hallowed Dharma.” In other words, we don’t just jump ahead and skip over various points. That if we know the entire progression, the entire sequence of developing ourselves to liberation and enlightenment, then we’re not going to forsake the Dharma — it’s often called “abandon the Dharma” — which is to say, “That’s not necessary. That’s not the teaching of a Buddha,” and so on. We need to appreciate the way in which we can develop our hearts and minds.
This is what we’ve been discussing. We’ve taken it a little bit further in the text.
How Do We Meditate on Compassion?
Now a review. Let’s see how much you’ve understood. First with compassion, since I’ve used compassion as the example. Let’s review how would you meditate on compassion. What is actually involved? Then we will do bodhichitta, which is much more difficult. How would you meditate on compassion? What do you need to know?
Participant: The causes.
Dr. Berzin: The causes. What are the causes?
Participant: The causes are… how you build up compassion by first meditating on equanimity, taking into consideration all beings.
Dr. Berzin: Right. So, first we have to start with equanimity, take into consideration all beings. What is the state of mind of equanimity? What is it focused on?
Participant: As vast as possible, I guess.
Dr. Berzin: As vast as possible what?
Participant: Reaching out to as many beings as possible.
Dr. Berzin: As many beings as possible. That’s difficult, isn’t it? Very difficult. How do you actually do that? We’ve discussed this. Who remembers our discussion?
Participant: Watch the news.
Dr. Berzin: Watch the news. No. In terms of: do we start with one or two people, or do we start with sort of an amorphous mass of everybody? The six realms. We think of each of the six realms. How do you do it?
Participant: I’d start with my own suffering, and then I would think about expanding it to a visualization of everybody.
Dr. Berzin: Right. Very good. We start with our own suffering. Why do we start with our own suffering?
Participant: To get some connection of what suffering is.
Dr. Berzin: To get some connection with suffering. What’s the connection of... Is there a more specific connection? What is the state of mind that we develop based on thinking of our own suffering?
Participant: Not wanting it.
Dr. Berzin: Not wanting it. What is that called in Buddhism? Anybody? Ever hear of renunciation? Renunciation, right. What’s the relation between renunciation and compassion? Anybody?
Participant: Only based on renunciation can one develop compassion.
Dr. Berzin: Only based on renunciation, we can develop compassion. Why? What is renunciation? What’s that focused on, and how does that take it… What are you focusing on when you’re focusing on renunciation?
Participant: On samsara.
Dr. Berzin: Samsara. What does that mean?
Participant: Uncontrollable samsaric rebirth.
Dr. Berzin: Uncontrollable samsaric rebirth. And?
Participant: And not wanting it.
Dr. Berzin: No. What else are we focusing on? Is it just the first noble truth?
Participant: And it’s possible to overcome it.
Dr. Berzin: And it’s possible to overcome it. That’s the third noble truth aspect. What about the second noble truth? The causes. The causes. It is our own suffering, and not just the suffering of suffering and the suffering of change (you know, the ordinary happiness that’s never satisfying) but the all-pervasive suffering of uncontrollably recurring rebirth that is the support for that. And you focus on the causes of it. Which are? What are the causes of samsara? Come on! Anybody? Well, say it in German. I’ll translate.
Participant: Unwissenheit.
Dr. Berzin: Unwissenheit. That’s right. Ignorance. Unawareness. What does it mean?
Participant: Not knowing, but also it can be knowing it wrong.
Dr. Berzin: Very good. It’s either not knowing how things exist or knowing it incorrectly, [knowing] what is opposite. Then all the disturbing emotions and the karma and so on that that brings on. As you said, the fact that it can be stopped, get rid of it, and that there is a pathway mind that will bring it about. The fourth noble truth aspect.
OK. Then how do we take our suffering to mind? This is what we’re focusing on, and this is what we understand, what we’re focusing on — our own suffering. Then what is the state of mind? How do you take it to mind? How do you perceive it? How do you relate to that?
Participant: A feeling of “No more like this!” or “I’m fed up with it.”
Dr. Berzin: Right. I’m fed up with this. This is the emotion that goes with it. The emotion is disgust. That’s the emotional component. Taking it to mind is the wish to get out of that, for that to end, plus a willingness to give it up. There has to be a willingness to give it up coupled with a wish for it to end, plus… there’s a determination to be free, plus, as you say, confidence and understanding that it is possible to be free from this. The mind is not inherently stained by all this garbage and so on. All of that’s renunciation.
Now, compassion is exactly the same thing, except rather than focused on our own suffering, it’s focused on the suffering of everybody else. Because it’s exactly the same. That’s the only difference. Now, we can explain the relationship in terms of empathy. That’s another aspect. That just as I want to be free of my suffering… What is the German word for empathy?
Participant: Mitgefühl.
Dr. Berzin: Mitgefühl is compassion. That’s what we use for compassion. But empathy is to... Well, I guess Mitgefühl is very close in German to that, isn’t it?
Participant: Compassion is more Mitleid, I think.
Dr. Berzin: No, Mitleid is pity. That’s looking down on someone. The way it’s used in Tibetan jargon, Buddhist jargon, we make a difference between Mitleid and Mitgefühl.
We can empathize with others — we can feel what they feel — because we’ve felt it ourselves. Just as we would want ourselves to be free of it and we’re determined to be free of it and to give it up, we are determined that they need to be free of this and that they want to be free. We’re determined to do something about it. We are convinced that it is possible for them to be free of this. All of that is involved with compassion.
Participant: And ready to do something about it.
Dr. Berzin: And ready to do something about it. Taking some responsibility.
When we talk about the exceptional resolve (lhag-bsam) — or the pure wish, or whatever you want to call it (the step after compassion and before bodhichitta in the seven-part cause and effect sequence) — that is not just taking responsibility to help them but taking responsibility to lead them all the way to liberation and enlightenment. That’s what makes it exceptional. That’s the difference.
Now there’s an interesting question. What is the emotional component of compassion? If the emotional component of renunciation was disgust and being fed up with our own suffering, how would that translate into the way in which we relate to others’ suffering?
Participant: You feel touched by that.
Dr. Berzin: To be touched, to be moved, to be emotionally moved, but in what way?
Participant: It hurts.
Dr. Berzin: That it hurts. OK.
Now, what would be detrimental? Tsongkhapa says you have to know what’s detrimental to compassion. What would be detrimental? (Detrimental is what would prevent it.) What would be detrimental?
Participant: An egoist attitude.
Dr. Berzin: Egoist attitude. A selfish attitude: you don’t care about anybody else. And another one, the one that I was thinking of — because we emphasize this in the sensitivity training — is being afraid to actually feel the suffering of others and to deal with the suffering of others.
Both of these aspects would also be detrimental in terms of renunciation: “I don’t care about my own suffering. I don’t care...” People who smoke, for example: “I don’t care that it damages my health. You can put whatever you want to say” — you know, the things that they put on cigarette packages now — “I don’t care that it will kill you and maim your baby, and all sorts of things like that. I don’t care.”
A doctor friend was telling me about how many doctors smoke. The doctors know perfectly well what it does to your lungs and everything else, and yet so many doctors smoke. So, what is this?
Participant: It’s globally. Also in Mexico, at least.
Dr. Berzin: Right. Also in Mexico, and that’s very typical.
You have to care what happens, what you’re experiencing. Just as you have to care about what you’re experiencing, you have to care about what others are experiencing. You have to know what is detrimental, Tsongkhapa says.
You have to be willing to actually face your suffering and feel it. There are a lot of people who block it out, who deny that they are suffering. They’re in a terrible relationship, or an abusive relationship, and they deny it. They don’t want to face their suffering. That’s not knowing the nature of feeling of pain and of happiness. This can be a big block when our feelings… or a big obstacle. Detrimental to feeling compassion is blocked feelings: you’re afraid.
Also what would be a big hindrance to it is if you become overemotional. So — from our sensitivity training again — either being insensitive or being oversensitive. If you’re overemotional: “Oh, I can’t take it, the suffering of the world,” and you’re so upset and you cry, then you’re hopeless; you can’t do anything.
All of this we have to know very, very well with individualizing discriminating awareness. Tsongkhapa chooses the correct word, the precise word. You have to know very specifically, in all the details, what is detrimental — what will harm it, what do I have to watch out for — what do I need to develop. You have to understand the nature of suffering, not be afraid of it. We can use many methods for that, like the mahamudra thing that it’s just a feeling, a wave on the surface of the ocean of the mind, and so on. It’s no big deal. Not be afraid of it, not be overwhelmed by it, not deny it and go like a submarine under the surface of the ocean — just there it is.
Just as we would have that attitude with relation to our own suffering, with renunciation, and we are disgusted… Ah, now is there a component that is parallel to disgust and fed up in terms of the suffering of others? Yes. “I’m fed up with this situation, that everybody is suffering, and how horrible that is, and I’m going to do something about it.” That’s a state of being disgusted and fed up, isn’t it? That’s an aspect with relation to ourselves as well. If I’m disgusted and fed up with my own suffering, that means that I’m going to do something about it, doesn’t it? Similarly with the suffering of others.
In a sense, we are sculpting like a sculptor all the different aspects of the state of mind that we want to develop. Tsongkhapa says, “How can you possibly develop the state of mind that’s being described in the Buddhist teachings unless you know all of this?” That’s why he says we have to have everything complete in their defining characteristics and not just partial, know all these different aspects, and then, as he says, we can have confidence that we’re actually developing the correct thing and how to develop it, and (as in the qualities of the teacher) not to add something that doesn’t need to be there and not to leave something out. In working on our development, that’s something that needs to be very, very precise, not vague, not sloppy. The instructions, all the pieces, are there. They may not be put together in a very accessible way — that’s up to us. I’ve told you many times before that studying Dharma is like getting a giant jigsaw puzzle with all the pieces and we have to put them together.
But this is the process for developing compassion. Do you understand that? All the aspects — Tsongkhapa says the aspects — all the different types of suffering of samsara, and there are all the lists of six, and eight, and so on: birth and sickness and old age and death, and not getting what we want even if we try, and having things happen to us that we don’t want, and having to go from high to low, and having to always leave your body, and all this sort of stuff. You have to know all the aspects, the complete picture.
The complete picture is not… the aspects are not just in terms of the first noble truth aspect, which is suffering. It’s also with respect to the second noble truth aspect, the causes of suffering. There are lists of the sixteen types of compassion and all sorts of things which have to do with different causes. The compassion for those who are suffering because they don’t understand, and then there’s a whole long list of sixteen different things that they don’t understand that’s causing them their suffering: they don’t understand there’s not true arising, there’s no true ceasing, there’s no true abiding, there’s… Anyway, it’s a big, long list like that. These are the different aspects of the cause, the second noble truth aspect.
It also introduces our understanding of the fourth noble truth aspect, which is what will get rid of this suffering. Because remember, we have to have confidence that it is possible to be free of that suffering and what would bring that about. Without that, it’s detrimental to our development of compassion. Why is it detrimental? Because at some point you will give up and say, “It’s impossible. There’s too much suffering. What can I do? I’m just one person. What can I do? The system can’t be changed.” Very easy to develop, isn’t it? Think of the world situation now. Remember, compassion. Global — more than global, universal. “Well, now everything is run by big business and greed, and because of that it doesn’t matter who gets into power, because big business and greed will rule anyway. Big money.” Then you think it’s hopeless. How can I develop compassion for everybody that is suffering from global warming, which is a universal problem, not just my problem, and so on? How can I help? It’s impossible. How can you get the whole Western, developed world to lower their living standard and so on? Impossible. So, you give up. That’s what’s detrimental, isn’t it, to developing compassion and to taking some responsibility to help.
But then again, one has to be realistic. It’s also detrimental to think “I’m going to save the world, and what I do is going to be the only thing that is in the causal pot of affecting what happens in the universe. Everything depends on what I do. And if I [don’t] succeed then I wasn’t good enough” — and guilt and all of this garbage.
All of that is involved with compassion. One has to be very, very clear. Very clear.
Now the question is… Obviously you can’t just say, “Well ok, class, now sit down and let’s do compassion. Let’s meditate on compassion,” because actually one would have to do a great deal of preparation and a great deal of listening, thinking about it or pondering, and then meditating. Now you’ve heard. Of course, there’s a step between hearing and thinking about it, which is you have to remember what you heard. That’s not mentioned there, but that’s sort of to be understood. You have to remember it and think about it and work through all these things, then you can actually build it up as a beneficial habit (that’s meditation).
How Do We Meditate on Bodhichitta?
Let’s do bodhichitta since that’s much more sophisticated. What are the causes? Well, what do we have to know for bodhichitta? How would you sit down and do bodhichitta meditation?
Participant: You know the aim.
Dr. Berzin: You know the aim, the focal object. OK. Well, I think you’d have to start with the causes. The causes first. So, what are the causes?
Participant: Compassion.
Dr. Berzin: Compassion only?
Participant: No.
Dr. Berzin: No? What?
Participant: Love and compassion.
Dr. Berzin: Love and compassion. Only that?
Participant: And understanding of voidness.
Dr. Berzin: Understanding of voidness. Yes, but that’s indirect here. I mean, first we start with all the things that we discussed already: Equilibrium, equanimity toward everybody. Either everybody’s been our mother, etc., up to love and compassion; or everybody is equal, everybody wants to be happy and [nobody wants to be] unhappy — that sequence, up to love and compassion. Wish for everybody to be happy and [have the] causes for happiness (that’s love), and to be free of suffering and the causes of suffering (that’s compassion). Then the exceptional resolve to take responsibility, beyond the responsibility you take with compassion, to bring them completely out of samsara to liberation, and even more, to help to bring them to enlightenment.
Is that enough? Are those the causes for bodhichitta, sufficient causes for bodhichitta? Nay. No.
Then we have to realize: “How can I actually help them to reach liberation and enlightenment? The only way that I can is if I reach enlightenment myself.” You can’t leave that step out. Now, how would you make that step? What would you need to be convinced of?
Participant: That it’s possible to achieve it.
Dr. Berzin: That it’s possible to achieve, but that’s coming next. Before that? Now, that’s part of it, that is part of it, that’s true, but why would you need to... Yeah, that it’s possible to achieve it. I mean, this is based on understanding that what is preventing me... what would I need to know… what would I need to be able to do to lead everybody to enlightenment? Understand how we get there ourselves. Yes, that’s part of it. What do we need to do... What are the two obscurations? Emotional and cognitive. Why would you need to gain liberation in order to help others? What are you free of if you gain liberation? Emotional obscurations. What are those?
Participant: Attachment, repulsion…
Dr. Berzin: Attachment, repulsion. The disturbing emotions. Why would that be of harm?
Participant: We are not open.
Dr. Berzin: We’re not open: we’re attached to some, we are repelled from others, we are indifferent to others, we get jealous, and so on. Now, it’s very important — I mean, you need that for even ordinary helping others — it’s very important to understand that from our very own experience, not just theoretical. What happens when you try to help others?
Participant: One gets upset.
Dr. Berzin: One gets upset, that’s right, because they don’t follow our advice, they do something annoying, they resent what we do. We get attached to them, so we only want to help this one. We want something in return: we want them to thank us or to like us or to be nice to us. We’re proud. We’re jealous. All these sort of things. You have to appreciate how that interferes with helping others. You have to really appreciate that from experience, not just theoretically. How it really messes up… “I’m trying to help you, but I’ve been clinging to you at the same time,” and the other person then rejects us, and so you see it’s been a total failure. Why? Because of my attachment and clinging to this person. Even though I’ve been doing all the things that I thought would be of help to them. You know, like the smothering parent or the smothering partner. We appreciate that I really have to get rid of these disturbing emotions. That really is preventing me from helping others.
And karma. Why does karma prevent us from helping others? Why would karma prevent us from helping others?
Participant: We don’t have a connection to that person.
Dr. Berzin: That’s one aspect. We don’t feel that we have a connection with them.
Participant: If their karma is very strong to experience some kind of result, they really cannot change that.
Dr. Berzin: Well, true, in terms of other people’s karma. But we’re not talking about overcoming other people’s karma which would prevent them from really being helped by us.
Why do we have to overcome our own karma? What happens as the consequence of karma? What does karma ripen into? Sickness, accidents — all sorts of obstacles, doesn’t it? We want to overcome that, don’t we, in order to help others. How can I help you if I’m constantly sick or, as a result of being close-minded, I’m stupid and I don’t understand anything, or all these sorts of things, these karmic results. Or I’m starving to death, or I’m caught in a war and shot or thrown in a concentration camp, or whatever. We have to overcome karma as well.
OK. I understand that if I really want to help others, I have to gain liberation. Now, is that enough? No. What is the problem?
Participant: I don’t know how to help them.
Dr. Berzin: Don’t know how to help them. Why don’t I know how to help them?
Participant: Because I don’t know what are the effects of…
Dr. Berzin: Right. Because we don’t know the effects of what we will teach or all the causes. Why? What’s preventing it?
Participant: Cognitive obscurations.
Dr. Berzin: Cognitive obscurations. What’s that?
Participant: The appearance of a result that is encapsulated by… I’m working toward this, but there’s the appearance that there’s going to be this particular result. We might not see that there is also a side effect, some interference.
Dr. Berzin: Right. Exactly. Cognitive obscurations are the habits of grasping for true existence. What that means is that our mind makes things appear in a limited fashion, as if they were isolated, existing all by themselves, established by themselves. Remember, we’ve used the example of looking through a periscope from a submarine, a U-boat, that you just see a little bit through the periscope; you don’t see the whole picture. It’s not that we teach something, and it has just one result on this person and that’s it. This person is interacting with everybody else that they meet in this lifetime and in all future lifetimes, and everybody that they meet is going to be influenced by their meeting with this person, and that will influence everybody else that they meet.
What we really need to be able to understand is the interdependence of absolutely everything. What does that mean? That means omniscience, doesn’t it? We need to be omniscient in order to know all the causes because everything is interconnected. Our being in this room and talking now is dependent on the dinosaurs, it’s dependent on... I mean, there’s a million things. Everything has influenced this particular event that we’re participating in here in this room, isn’t it? If dinosaurs didn’t decompose, and the oil that came from it… etc., etc. We are convinced, then, that really to be able to help others, I need to become a Buddha (i.e. overcome these cognitive obscurations as well).
And then, of course, what you brought up, that you have to have confidence that it’s possible. Which is why I was emphasizing, in the presentation of the three scopes, the basic purity of the mind. If you don’t understand that which is basic mahamudra teachings, the purity of the mind — that it’s not inherently stained by all of this — how could you possibly aim for enlightenment? Then it’s impossible. You have to be convinced that it’s possible, which means that you have to be convinced of the result. What is the result? It’s the third noble truth, come on, that there is this stopping, there can be a stopping of all of this, if we get down to the basic purity of the mind. These are not easy things to be convinced of, to understand. It has to do with the voidness of the mind, etc., as you were bringing up. Yes, that we need to know. OK.
These are the things that are the causes of bodhichitta. Never leave out this thing of what brings you from all the previous steps to bodhichitta, which is that in order to really help everybody to attain liberation and enlightenment, I have to reach liberation and enlightenment. You have to understand why and how and that it’s possible. Also, as I say, you have to understand how (the fourth noble truth aspect) and not just that it is possible.
Now, what are you focusing on? What is the aspect? I mean what is the focal object, I’m sorry. What is the focal object? This is not an easy one. What’s our focal object?
Participant: Our own future enlightenment.
Dr. Berzin: Our own future enlightenment. What in the world does that mean and what appears to your mind?
Participant: The aggregates being free of the obscurations.
Dr. Berzin: The aggregates being free of the obscurations. Yes. In a sense, that’s true. But what is the enlightened state? First of all, we’re talking about something that has not yet happened. It is our individual enlightenment which has not yet happened. When we are talking about future, we’re talking about a not-yet-happening event. Right? OK. In terms of the four noble truths, we are talking about the third and fourth noble truths. We’re talking about the true stopping of these two obscurations and the pathway mind that not only brings that about but that is the result of this. We’re talking about the third and fourth noble truths on the basis of our minds, our mental continuum, which, depending on what school we’re following, has not yet happened. We have to understand what in the world is not yet happened. What is not yet happened is the attainment of it, because the true stopping is there — and now we get into very sophisticated philosophy — the true stopping is there anyway: it never was stained. The ability to understand everything has always been there. What are we talking about? We’re talking about Buddha-nature. That’s what we’re focusing on.
There’s a difference between what we are focusing on and what appears — that’s something else — what appears in our mind when we are… when you sit there, what do you bring to mind? What we have to understand is that we’re focusing on that purity of the mind — the third noble truth — basic purity of the mind and the fourth noble truth, which is being equivalent here to the mind of a Buddha. Secondary to that will be the physical appearances of a Buddha that derive… and they’re together with the mind. When we talk about a true path, the fourth noble truth — at least according to Prasangika as is understood by Gelugpa — that’s only mind, only mental factors.
When we talk about the aspects, what aspects would we need to have here to know? All the qualities of a Buddha. The qualities of a Buddha mind and body and speech, and all of that. If you’re aiming for your own enlightened state which has not yet happened, you have to know all the aspects of it. All right? What actually would appear in your mind? Well, before that, what is the way of taking this? I suppose it doesn’t come before. First, what would appear? (The way of taking it is the intention: “I want to achieve this, intend to achieve this, and intend to help everybody by means of this,” which is based on understanding how you can help everybody on the basis of this.)
What actually appears? Sitting in meditation, what appears? Well, you said it — the five aggregates. You’re sitting there. You’re looking at the wall or whatever. You have mental consciousness. And we have some sort of feeling of happiness or neutral, something like that. And discernment; we’re discerning something that represents an enlightened state. And then all the mental factors that go with that, which are underlying it — love, compassion, intention, and all these sorts of things. This is going on. That’s what is there in your state of mind.
Now, we brought this up yesterday. What would be the enlightened state that has not yet happened? Is that an existent phenomenon (yod-pa)? Yes. Is it happening now? No. An existent phenomenon is something that can be known, something that can be validly known. Can it be validly known? Yes. Could it possibly be happening now? No. There’s a distinction here, two different words used in Tibetan. OK. How could it be known? Through what’s known as a totally imaginary form (kun-btags-pa’i gzugs). Totally imaginary form. You imagine it. I mean, that would be how it appears, and it represents that enlightened state.
Therefore, we have guru-yoga. You visualize the guru, and it’s representing the enlightened state, and we try to merge — it’s guru-yoga (yoga is “to yoke,” “to merge”) — so it becomes inseparable. It’s representing our enlightened state. It’s a very, very important foundation for developing bodhichitta, first refuge then bodhichitta. Or we visualize a Buddha-figure (yi-dam). Visualize a Buddha in front of you. It’s what’s done as the most favored method for developing single-minded concentration (ting-nge-’dzin, Skt. samadhi) in Mahayana. It’s all connected with helping us to develop bodhichitta. Or in tantra, then, we imagine ourselves in this form. This is what this will be leading to in the next section of the text — visualize ourselves as a Buddha. Well, this is very good because we have to also keep in mind all the aspects, all the aspects of a Buddha. If you focus on a Buddha in front of you, you should be aware of all the qualities of a Buddha. Not just a nice-looking figure. Not just a piece of art. You visualize yourself as a Buddha, so it should be with all the qualities. That’s why you have all the arms and legs and colors and stuff because they represent all the different qualities, so it’s easier to keep them all in mind.
This is what is actually appearing. Now we have to know how we understand this. What do you understand with this appearing and that you want to achieve it? I don’t want to just achieve this imaginary figure, Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck, that we’re imagining. So now we get into a more sophisticated explanation. What can be imputed on this network of presently-happening five aggregates and an imaginary form of our enlightenment which is not yet happening? That’s what you have here. You have a network of presently-happening five aggregates, right? And you have an imaginary form of our enlightened state which is not yet happening. The enlightened state is not yet happening. What is imputed on that? A mental continuum, a presently-happening mental continuum, right? We only have one moment at a time, so a mental continuum is something which is imputed. OK. What is imputed on that presently-happening mental continuum?
Participant: Its enlightenment?
Dr. Berzin: Well, no. That’s the imaginary form. I mean, what are we talking about here? We’re talking about the third and fourth noble truths, is what we want to get here and Buddha-nature. We want to figure out how in the world we understand Buddha-nature here. What is imputed on the presently-happening mental continuum?
First of all, we have a presently-happening mere me. The me is imputed on that. That’s very important in tantra, when you have to have what’s known as the pride of the Buddha-figure (lha’i nga-rgyal), that it is valid to label me on the basis of this enlightened state which is not yet happening. Do you understand that? We will discuss that a lot further on in the text. There is this totally imaginary form — I mean, there’s all this other stuff that we’ll get to — that’s there, and all of that is connected with the mental continuum. The mental continuum is a basis for labeling me.
Think of it in this lifetime: the baby, the child, the teenager, the adult, the old person — all of that is a basis for labeling me, isn’t it? The continuum of that is a basis for labeling me. And that will include the old man or old woman which is not yet happening. That also is a valid basis for me, isn’t it?
We have the mental continuum and a presently-happening mere me. What else is there on that mental continuum? What can be imputed is an absence of a presently-happening enlightenment, isn’t it? Why would you have to know that? You would have to know that so that you’re not schizophrenic and crazy and think that you are enlightened now. Otherwise, you have these crazy people who run around… There was one like that in Dharamsala, this older woman who took off all her clothes and ran around the town screaming that she was Tara. You have to realize there’s an absence of a presently-happening enlightenment, not there yet. Also, of course, what is imputable is the voidness of true existence on that mental continuum, voidness of the mind. That we’ll have to get back to. That becomes how do you get from that to the third noble truth. But let’s get further.
What is imputable on that presently-happening me, mere me? What’s imputable on that? What’s imputable on that are the presently-happening tendencies or seeds. I don’t know if you remember this, but in the discussion of karma when we talk about the karmic aftermath — which are tendencies, habits, etc. — according to Prasangika, what is the basis on which they are imputed? It can’t just be your mental continuum, because the rough states of mind cease at the time of death and in sutra you don’t have a discussion of the clear light mind (’od-gsal). You have in Chittamatra the alayavijnana (kun-gzhi rnam-shes), the foundation consciousness, as the place in which they’re imputed, and so on. According to Prasangika, they’re imputed on the mere me. Mere me can always be labeled on a mental continuum, regardless of death, enlightenment, etc.
Just as the karmic tendencies can be imputed on the mere me, likewise the tendencies for all Buddha-qualities. The potential. That’s Buddha-nature. All the potentials. The ability to be omniscient, the ability to know everything. The ability to have infinite compassion. The ability to communicate. The ability to appear in various forms. All of these tendencies and abilities — what is their basis of imputation is the me, the mere me, which can be imputed on the mental continuum, which can be imputed on the sequence of moments of your aggregates.
We’ll go further, but how do you focus on your abilities? That’s the difficult question. How do you focus on your abilities? What’s going on in your mind? Well, what’s appearing? What’s appearing are the five aggregates of this moment. I’m looking at the wall, and that’s with my visual consciousness. And with my mental consciousness, I’m visualizing a Buddha or imagining I’m in the form of a Buddha. But all the things that are imputed on it — these are things that we know at the same time, so what we would call understanding. This is very, very delicate. Very, very delicate.
Let’s look at an example. The glass falls from the table. We just see one moment at a time, right? You don’t see that whole sequence simultaneously. You see it one moment at a time. With that sequence, we label the breaking of the glass. What’s imputed on the breaking of the glass that we see?
Participant: The impermanence.
Dr. Berzin: The impermanence of the glass. How do we understand the impermanence — how do you focus on the impermanence of the glass? You have a picture of the glass breaking — could be a movie going in your mind — and you understand impermanence. Do you have to say the word impermanence in your mind? No. You understand it. Can you follow that? You understand it. When we are focusing on our abilities — this is very important for self-confidence and for all these sort of things — it’s an understanding.
These Buddha-nature factors — you have to understand what they are. If we speak in very, very rough terms, we’re talking about the ability to understand, the ability to communicate, the ability to appear in various forms, the ability to take care of something (like compassion). These are very, very fundamental aspects.
Buddha-nature — there are two types of Buddha-nature. Buddha-nature isn’t really even the word in Tibetan (some Westerner made that up, Buddha-nature). The words used in Tibetan and in Sanskrit are the “womb” which is concealing inside it what will develop within it. It is the womb that will have an enlightened being. Womb of an enlightened being: tathagatagarbha (de-gshegs snying-po). Garbha (snying-po) is the word in Sanskrit. That’s a very, very — pardon me, but I can’t help but say it — a pregnant image. It has a lot of meaning in it. Womb within which the enlightened being will grow, and it conceals it; it’s hidden within. And that womb is the mind, basically, and what it contains in it which will grow are all these factors, these abilities.
There are the evolving Buddha-natures (rgyas-’gyur-gyi rigs) and then there’s the abiding one (rang-bzhin gnas-rigs). The abiding one is the nature of the mind, the voidness of the mind. The evolving ones are the ones that will evolve to the various Three Bodies of a Buddha (sku-gsum): the Dharmakaya (referring to the mind of a Buddha here), Sambhogakaya (which is subtle forms, which in tantra is speech) and Nirmanakaya (grosser forms, emanations). We have the basic qualities of the ability to understand, to communicate, to appear.
We also have the two networks of positive force (bsod-nams-kyi tshogs) and deep awareness (ye-shes-kyi tshogs) when dedicated to enlightenment. If not dedicated, positive force just is positive karma. It has to be dedicated to enlightenment. That’s why dedication is very important. Positive force — what is that? Those are the tendencies and so on. It’s labeled on the me, the mere me. The deep awareness that has been built up from more and more absorption on voidness. The habit of that. What is a habit? A habit is imprinted, imputed on the mere me.
All of that is there. Then there are certain facets of these abilities (a facet is like a part of it, a feature of it). What are some of the features of these tendencies, these abilities? One of the things that is a facet of it is the ability to give rise to an enlightened state which is not yet happening. What’s not yet happening is the giving rise to it. That’s one aspect of it, one facet of that ability. It’s an ability to give rise, but it’s not yet giving rise, to enlightenment. And there is also temporarily not giving rise to that enlightenment. It’s another aspect. These are all very important for understanding karma, by the way, but it works also with Buddha-nature.
There’s the ability to give rise. There is this ability, these potentials. What is a facet of this potential? It’s the potential to give rise — the ability to give rise — to a result, to that enlightened feature, but it’s not yet doing that. That’s this other aspect. It’s temporarily not giving rise to it, but it can. And then we have to understand all the causes and conditions that will bring about it actually giving rise to it. What is imputable on the temporarily not giving rise to the result is the not yet happening of enlightenment. And the not yet happening — the basis of that is the absence of the presently-happening enlightenment.
For all of this, it helps to have a chart. It gets terribly complicated. But I think you get the general structure here. It’s not yet happening. What’s the basis of that? The basis of it is the absence of it presently happening. And it’s not yet happening — well, that’s imputed on the fact that it’s temporarily not giving rise to it, and that’s a facet of the ability to give rise, which is imputed on the me, then the me is imputed on the mental continuum, and that’s imputed on the aggregates (what’s happening now), and all of it’s represented by this Buddha-figure that I’m visualizing.
That’s a little bit dense, I’m sorry, and one has to work with that, but you start to get an appreciation of what’s going on. Now we’ve come to an end, so maybe we should leave it with that, because what is quite complicated is the third noble truth imputable on the mind. We’ve had the fourth (the fourth one is the true pathway mind).
We’ve seen the true pathway mind is not yet… the resultant one is not yet happening, but it can happen on the basis of Buddha-nature. All these various things are what we understand — what appears to our mind — while looking at the wall. Some representation of the Body of a Buddha. We understand all the not yet happening, etc., what it represents, the abilities, and so on. That’s there. And the way you take it is the intention to achieve that, supported by love and compassion — which adds the second intention, which is to benefit everybody by means of this, because we’ve understood that only if I achieve this will I really be able to benefit others. It’s an unbelievable state of mind. Not a simple thing to meditate on, not by any means. OK?
We will continue with this because I think this is very, very important, very crucial. We’re told so much about bodhichitta, how important it is and how valuable, and it’s the most incredible thing in the world. You’ll recall the first chapter of Bodhicharyavatara, Shantideva’s text, all the praises that he gives to bodhichitta. But ask us how do you actually… What is the state of mind? Now I’m sitting and now I’m meditating on bodhichitta. What in the world do I do? What’s going on in my mind? That’s not so easy. These are the things that go on in the mind. Focused on our individual enlightenment, which is not yet happening, but which can happen on the basis of Buddha-nature, with the intention to achieve it in order to be able to benefit all beings. All of that is there.
As I say, I think we need to really understand how you can focus on something with an understanding — what it means to understand something while you’re focusing. I can focus on this collection of colored shapes — which is all that I’m seeing, is colored shapes — from one point of view and understand it as a human being and understand it as Daniel. There’s understanding here. That’s not so easy to appreciate what understanding is when we’re focused on something. I think what helps us is the five types of deep awareness, which are also aspects of Buddha-nature. We’re able to see the details [mirror-like deep awareness (me-long lta-bu’i ye-shes)]; the individuality of something [individualizing deep awareness (sor-rtog ye-shes)]; how it fits into patterns (the equality of it with other things in the same category, like other things that are red or blue) [equalizing deep awareness (mnyam-nyid ye-shes)]; and function, how to relate to it [accomplishing deep awareness (bya-grub ye-shes)]. You understand, when you see food, to put it in your mouth and to chew. We are aware of what to do with it, how it functions. How do you understand that? What goes on in your mind when you see the food? You just understand. And the sphere of reality awareness (chos-dbyings ye-shes, deep awareness of reality): you know what it is; it’s not just a colored shape. If we get into this system of the five types of deep awareness, I think it starts to help us to appreciate understanding. That also we need to know.
Let’s end here with a dedication. We think whatever positive force, whatever understanding has come from this, may it go deeper and deeper and act as a cause for reaching enlightenment for the benefit of all.
I hope once we have gotten this a little bit clearer, then maybe we can try to generate these states of mind in meditation. It’s like making a precision instrument. We need all these steps.