LTF 51: The 4 Great Wheels – The 10 Enriching Factors

It’s very important that we follow a path that has all three trainings. Even if we understand with discriminating awareness what the nature of reality actually is and can discriminate that all the confusing appearances that our minds project (because of the habits of confusion and ignorance) don’t refer to anything real, we need to be able to realize and understand that not only in general when we're sitting in a very calm situation but also when we actually need to apply it, like when we are in some sort of really unpleasant emotional situation in which we are very desirous of something or someone or are very angry or very jealous, very upset in one way or another. It's at that time that we really need to apply this understanding – with reference to ourselves. Is there a solid “me” there that thinks, “Poor me, I don't have this other person whom I want to have with me all the time. And is there really a solid ‘you’ that somehow I could have and who maybe is ignoring me or not giving me enough time?” With discriminating awareness, we realize that this concept of a solid “me” and a solid “you,” which underlies this longing desire and attachment and the pain of not having what we want, is all false, and that what that leaves us with is just an ongoing stream of continuity, a continuum, of aggregate factors – two individual streams influenced by countless other factors, countless other things that are going on in each of our lives and that have influenced us from beginningless time (and we're just interacting for some karmic reason now in one way or another), and these streams of so many different things are interconnecting in certain little ways. And they will go on. We can label “me” and “you” on that, but there's nothing solid there. We can understand that with discriminating awareness. 

The point is that focusing on that understanding and on ‘no such thing’ as this solid “me” and solid “you” may help in the moment that we’re focusing on it. It does help in that moment. But then we lose concentration, and we stop thinking that; we stop understanding that. And when we stop understanding that or stop having our focus on that, again, the pain and the hurt come back. And the longing desire comes back or the anger. “You didn't give me enough time!” So, it's absolutely necessary to be able to maintain that concentration – and not just when you're sitting calmly in meditation. 

In order to maintain that concentration, we need mindfulness. That's the mental glue with which we hold on to the understanding. And we can only get that through training and discipline, the ethical discipline to avoid those type of actions (and here we're talking about a mental action) that cause us suffering and pain. 

So, this training in the three higher trainings – far-reaching discipline, far-reaching concentration, and far-reaching wisdom, or discriminating awareness – is absolutely essential. We can't just focus on achieving that correct understanding without the concentration. And without the discipline, we won't be able to apply that understanding sufficiently and properly. So, the text speaks about these three trainings in these three higher things. 

The Two Aims of the Three Trainings: Liberation and Enlightenment

When it comes to the training in higher discriminating awareness, the texts say there’s two divisions, two aims: (1) how to get ourselves out of the disturbing emotions – in other words, to gain liberation – and (2) how to get us to enlightenment, which would enable us to understand how to help everybody as fully as possible. 

To get ourselves out of the disturbing emotions, we need, first, to turn our minds from being totally involved in things in this life and to think, instead, of future lives. Then, we need to turn our minds from being totally involved in samsara in general, uncontrollably recurring rebirth, and not just aim to get a better rebirth or to continue having precious human rebirths. The ultimate aim is not just forever having precious human rebirths. We want to use that as a vehicle to get out of rebirth altogether, to achieve liberation from that. Even with a precious human rebirth, there will still be the emotional ups and downs; there will still be the disturbing emotions there – even though we'll have the best opportunities to be able to work on them. 

It's very important to realize that when we are aiming for a precious human rebirth, turning our attention away from being obsessed with this lifetime, we don't just want the precious human rebirth so that we can continue to be with our friends, continue to be with our loved ones. “My next lives and all my future lives, may I never be parted from my loved ones.” That's not what we are aiming for here. 

So, that ultimate renunciation of samsara is something that we have to keep in the back of our minds, even if we are emotionally only on the level of the initial scope aiming to improve human lives… and only on that level. That's a funny way of saying it because I doubt that most of us even reach the level of taking future lives really seriously. It's very, very important to develop that level, to really believe, on a deep, emotional, gut level, in future lives, being convinced that that's so, and really aiming – taking that seriously – to make sure that those future lives are not horrible. 

To do that, we need to think (and Nagarjuna explains this in the text) about death and impermanence, about the fact that the opportunities we have now are certainly going to end. Everybody in the past has died, so what makes us any different from that? It's just a matter of when. We've no idea when that will happen; it could happen at any time. And nothing is going to be of help at the time of death except the Dharma practice that we have done. Friends aren't of help. Wealth isn't of help. Nothing is of help. Then we think to take advantage of the precious human lives that we have. 

Methods for Meditating on the Precious Human Rebirths We Have 

There are many ways of meditating on this. One way is to think of all the horrible situations that are enumerated in which we would not have any leisure or freedom to be able to really practice the Dharma, to make some spiritual progress, and then to feel, all of sudden, that we've been freed from this and to feel how great a relief that is and how happy we would feel to take advantage of it. It’s like getting out of prison or getting cured from some terrible disease. That's one way. 

Another way, which we tried today before the lecture, is to just quiet down in meditation and focus on the breath – if that's what is suitable to us. Or if we have a little bit more experience, a little bit more teaching, we can focus on the nature of the mind, the experiencing of things – that in every moment, all that's happening is the arising of a mental hologram and some sort of level of awareness. Every moment, that's happening, regardless of the content, regardless of the object that's there, regardless of the emotion that is accompanying it, regardless of the amount of concentration, and so on. It’s just the arising of a mental hologram. That is what awareness of things is.

Now, when we stay with that in meditation, concentrating on that, and we stay like that for ten, fifteen, twenty minutes, what does it do? It makes a large pause, a large break between… I mean, if we're able to maintain concentration and not have our minds wander all over the place, not thinking about anything verbally or in pictures or images, but just staying with that nature of the mind, with the moment now or with the breath, we cut off all the content of this lifetime in terms of our focus on it. So, what are we left with? We're left all alone (if we can say it in that way) with the breath and the mind. And there we are. And the insight arises, “born alone, die alone; have to leave everything behind.” It's all there is; it’s a mental continuum. The breath goes as well. That's why the mental continuum is a little bit better to focus on, but, OK, it's not so easy for most people.

In that situation of “There I am. It's just the mind – clarity, awareness, mental holograms,” or the sight of what we are seeing in front of us or the sound of whatever noise is around – that's a very good state of mind in which to get some insights: “Look at the circumstances that I have now. I able to learn things. I’m not an animal, not a ghost or anything like that. Teachers are available; the teachings are available. I'm open-minded; I'm not experiencing some big, heavy mental block. There's support; society is favorable for this. And that is not going to last; time is limited.” 

That state in which the mind is very quiet and we're not involved with anything else is a very conducive state for really appreciating that death can come at any time. “I have a precious human life now, a precious opportunity. And I can use it. And I need to use it. I'd be stupid not to use it. So, I don't have time for getting angry and running after all my desires and lusts and being jealous and being hurt and being upset. I don't have time for this, let alone time to just sit and be entertained all the time, to find entertainment as much as I can. I want to use this opportunity that I have.” Sure, sometimes you need relaxation. That goes without saying. 

Now, what moves you out of that meditation state… because when you really get into quieting down and being very alert – that, of course, is a very pleasant state of mind. You get high on meditation. And it's only compassion that gets you out of that. “I can't just sit here and bliss out” (as we say in colloquial English). It's not that it is a la-dee-dah, whoopee type of happy state of mind, but it is a very exhilarating state of mind. You have a lot of energy and are very clear and very sharp. It's very pleasant, but it's not like being tickled or laughing or something like that. But it's thinking, “I can't just sit here. What about everybody else? What can I do to help others? They're suffering.” 

Now, this is where the real crux of the matter lies. It’s when we get up and are actually going to try to help others, and we’re going to try to develop ourselves further so that we can help others better. Then, we have to remember the insight. We have to hold on, with mindfulness, to that insight without making that insight or understanding into some sort of solid thing and me into some solid thing that has to hold onto it and that feels, “I’m guilty,” if we can't hold onto it. Don't make it into a “thing.” This is the real art of applying the Buddhist understanding, Buddhist practice. 

All of this underlies the instructions here in the text. And it's very beneficial and important to try to integrate these things, to make them part of ourselves, and to really appreciate what we have. Don't mess it up by acting like an animal that’s under the influence of the disturbing emotions and that gets angry, growling like a dog, “Grrrr,” when we don't get what we want, or being lustful, just running after any pretty thing that we see just because of some silly hormones. 

As Shantideva said, “These disturbing emotions have just made a fool of me for all these lifetimes and just created more and more suffering for me. I'm not going to let them rule. I will take control over them, not let them take control over me.” Those are very important words, very powerful words, and a very powerful thought. It’s something to remember when the disturbing emotions come up, and then, to apply whatever methods we've learned. There are so many methods to apply. The more methods we learn, the better. “Disturbing emotions – they’re just waves on the ocean. Don't get involved. Stay with the nature of the mind.” As soon as the emotion or the feeling or the thought comes up, don't get involved with it. It's just a movement of energy. That's all it is. “Why do I take it so seriously? It's just a movement of energy, a movement of the mind, movement of awareness” – however we want to look at it, from whichever point of view (it's not only energy). We stay with the nature of the mind, and we don't get caught up in the disturbing emotion. If we don't get caught up in the disturbing emotion, we don't act on the basis of it, like saying something stupid or going out and doing something stupid that, later, we regret. 

So, we are up to the precious human rebirth. And we've discussed, or Nagarjuna has discussed, the rarity of the human rebirth, the precious human rebirth, and how despicable it is to practice negative actions while we have such a rebirth. Remember the image that he uses is that it would be as stupid as somebody having a golden pot or vessel adorned with gems and using it to vomit into or to pee into. This would be completely ridiculous, a waste of something very precious – using it for something not at all noble. 

The verse that we're on now is describing in particular the basis: the precious human life that is endowed with the four wheels. Nagarjuna is using the four wheels to depict a cart that travels on four wheels. They represent the various endowments, or enrichments, that we have. There's a list of ten of them, which are being summarized here into the four wheels that make this precious human life a proper vehicle for making spiritual progress. 

The verse, Verse 61 reads: 

[61] (Now,) you possess the four great wheels: you live in a land that's conducive for Dharma, you rely on hallowed beings, by nature you're prayerful, and in the past, as well, you've built up positive force. 

The Five Personal Enriching Factors 

In order to see what is summarized in these four, we started our discussion last time of the ten enriching factors, as listed by Asanga. We went through the five personal factors that enrich our lives, that make our lives rich with opportunities and possibilities: 

• We're born as human beings. 
• We're born in the right place, namely, a central Buddhist region where there are monastics upholding the teachings. 
• We've been born with full faculties. We're not mentally handicapped or seriously physically handicapped in such a way that it would make it very, very difficult for us to practice. If we were severely mentally handicapped, there is certainly very little that we could do. 
• We are not experiencing the terrible mental blocks that we might have as the repercussions from having committed the most destructive actions in the past. 
• We instinctively believe in those things in which it's appropriate to place respect. In other words, we have respect for spiritual practice, particularly the Buddhist practice. We have respect for leading an ethical life, for not harming others, respect for spiritual teachers, and so on – so, respect for being a good person (to put it in very simple terms). 

So, these are the personal enriching factors.

The Five Societal Enriching Factors

Now we can start the new material and look at the five enriching factors that pertain to society. These refer to the time and place we're born – but from the side of the society that we're born into.

[1] A Buddha Has Come

The first of these is that a Buddha has actually come and is or has been present in this world. Buddhas don't always come and teach the Dharma. Very rare that they come. So, the Buddhas have come. It was Sakyamuni Buddha.

[2] A Buddha Is Teaching

Secondly, a Buddha has and is still continuing to teach the Dharma. Now, in terms of Buddha being present and actually teaching the Dharma, it’s true that sometimes Buddhas come and that they don't teach. They come, and nobody's really receptive, so then they go. Buddhas only teach when others are receptive and when others request. Buddhas don't push their teachings on anybody. If people aren't receptive and don't really want to learn, then they don't teach. And even though we don't have actual Buddhas around or Buddha Sakyamuni around, we have spiritual teachers around who are acting in the stead of the Buddhas. They're like representatives of the Buddhas, the texts say. “Ambassadors” is the terms that the Tibetans use. So, they are around, and they do teach. 

Discussion about Why Buddhist Texts Are “Encoded,” Why They Are Deliberately Made Difficult to Understand 

But to teach in the classical way, in the proper way (and many Western teachers don't, myself included), is to make it difficult for the students. You don't explain clearly, and you don't explain very much the first time. It's up to the student to develop the interest and the perseverance and the patience to come back and ask for more, to request more. The teacher doesn't just present everything on a silver plate and spoon-feed it to the students. It doesn't develop the character of the students to treat the students that way. You give them a hard time.

My teachers gave me a very hard time. Serkong Rinpoche would never teach me the first years unless I was translating the teaching for somebody else. No way that he would teach me by myself. It was only later, after studying with him for many years, that he taught me certain, special topics that he felt I was receptive to learn. And then he actually offered to teach them to me. But he made it difficult.

Participant: Alex, that was not the problem. The problem was that it is difficult to study.

Dr. Berzin: Well, it is difficult to study. I, perhaps, make it a little bit difficult by making it intellectually challenging. Certainly, I'm not here to entertain and tell jokes. But believe me, it could be a lot more difficult – like giving the students a hard time, scolding and so on. Rinpoche used to scold me very frequently. Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey used to scold people all the time, especially the translators. 

I must have told you this story. He was teaching, and he used a word that I didn't know and that I couldn't figure out. So, I asked him what that word meant. He said, “I explained that word to you seven years ago. I remember very clearly. Why don't you remember?” So, like that! That's what I mean about giving somebody a hard time. 

Participant: But not explaining clearly – I cannot understand that. 

Dr. Berzin: You don't explain clearly. The tantra texts are completely unclear – on purpose. It’s so that you have to rely on a teacher to explain them. And if you read the text, and you can't understand it and then give up… well, it’s that you didn't have enough perseverance or patience. So, you have to develop that. 

Participant: But it's hard enough…

Dr. Berzin: It's hard enough. But please, try it in Tibetan.

Participant: But isn't there the danger that one can misunderstand it?

Dr. Berzin: Well, in a sense there is. The way that the texts are written is usually in a manner that makes it very, very difficult for you to understand anything from them. 

Participant: Encoded.

Dr. Berzin: They are, in a sense, encoded. They’re encoded in technical jargon, which is not colloquial language. So, ordinary people wouldn't know what they mean. Some of them are written in very poetical language, like the various songs of the Mahasiddhas and so on. Tantras are all written in coded language. They talk about lotuses and vajras and moons and suns and things like that, and you have no idea what they are talking about. The texts on voidness are very, very terse in their language. And the commentaries are very complicated. All of this is on purpose. 

Serkong Rinpoche, in one of his scoldings to me when I was complaining about that, said, “How arrogant you are.” I had, in the beginning, pointed out to him that I needed to overcome my arrogance, and he never failed to point out when I was arrogant. He said, “How arrogant you are to complain and to think that Nagarjuna was not capable of writing clearly. How arrogant. If Nagarjuna wanted to write clearly, surely, he was intelligent enough to write clearly. He wrote the way he did on purpose, to benefit others by helping them to develop the far-reaching attitudes – patience, perseverance, discipline, concentration. It was motivated by compassion. You really, really have to understand this.” 

To be able to understand the level of Tibetan spoken by Serkong Rinpoche or His Holiness the Dalai Lama… they're not going to speak any more easily, and they're not going to speak any more slowly. I felt as though they were racing horses (was the image that I had in my mind). Somehow, I had to train myself so that I could run so fast that I could catch up and get on the horse and ride it. 

Participant: I think for some people, it's really complicated enough – that one should not add any complications.

Dr. Berzin: Well, for some people it's complicated enough, Marianna is saying, and the teachers shouldn't add... Well, most Western teachers don't. I don't. The way that I explain is not terribly easy. I admit that. But I certainly, I try to make things clear to people. I don't purposely make things obscure or purposely not explain things. Sometimes, maybe, I explain too much. 

Now, do Westerners need to be treated more gently and so on? Well, if you look at the psychology of most Westerners, you’d see that most Westerners have low self-esteem. So, if you make it really hard, they feel really insecure and can't do it. 

Participant: And they go away.

Dr. Berzin: And they go away. Well, Buddhism would say, “Well, they’re not receptive. If they go away, they didn't really want to learn badly enough.”

Participant: Buddhism would say or Tibetans would say?

Dr. Berzin: Tibetans would say, but it's not just Tibetans: it's the traditional approach. 

Participant: Patience.

Dr. Berzin: The Buddhist approach – whether it's Asian or whatever – is not just to make sure that the person has correct information but to help them develop their personality. That's why, with a student teacher relationship, which comes in the next verse, it's very important that the student be mature enough and that the teacher be mature enough and be the proper teacher. You want to be able to make like a contract with the teacher – “I'm never going to get angry with you. No matter what you say or do, I will see that as a teaching. What can I learn from that?” In a sense, you give the teacher permission to give you a hard time. 

I did that with Serkong Rinpoche. I said, “I have no social abilities to interact with people in a beneficial way. Please teach me skilful means. Help me to stop being like a donkey.” I used the traditional image that comes out of the text. “My teacher was the one that made a donkey like me into a human being.” So, I used that image. He was merciless in doing this. And it was wonderful. But you have to be mature enough to be able to take that and not get angry. That's the first cardinal rule: never ever get angry with the teacher. 

Look at all these teachings on so-called guru-devotion and what’s behind it, what the protocols are and so on and why it’s so terrible to get angry with the teacher, to think badly of the teacher and so on… well, it's all within the context of this special relationship. And you certainly don't get into that relationship with just anybody. 

So, it goes back to a theme that I have brought up over and over again, which is that there is a difference between Dharma-lite and the Real Thing Dharma. That's the real thing. Did Marpa make it easy for Milarepa? No way. Was it easy for the Tibetans to invite Atisha to Tibet? No way. These people had to struggle very hard and work very, very hard. 

So, this is coming from the theme that Buddhas are present and teaching, actually teaching. This is how they teach. So, we have spiritual teachers that are teaching that way. And as I say, if we really want to make progress, we have to work on our personalities, not just gain intellectual understanding (if we can use that Western way of looking at it). 

It requires a very special person to be a student and an even more special person to be a teacher who is not going to take advantage of that. That's difficult because the teacher needs to have great detachment. Usually, it is out of attachment to the student that you want to make it easy for them. Because you like them and so on, you want to give them everything, thinking that this is the generosity of giving the Dharma. I know that I'm guilty of that. But really, if the teacher has detachment, they're not concerned about people coming back every week. That's up to the people themselves. 

Most Western teachers don't want to give the students a difficult time because then the students won't come back, and then the teachers won't be able to pay the rent of the Dharma center. That's the reality. 

Then there are teachers who teach and give a hard… I mean look at how His Holiness the Dalai Lama teaches. It’s not at all easy to understand what he says. He gives a little bit, which everybody can understand, and gives sort of general advice. But when he goes into a text – my goodness – he goes at the highest level. Maybe not the highest level; I'm sure there are higher levels than what he explains. But he goes to a very, very deep level. And, yet, people come back, and people stay. And they try to understand. Or they get inspiration from the way that he is. Or they get inspiration from the fact that “look how profound this is, and there are actually some people who understand him.” So, you have admiration and aspiration: “May I reach that level where I can understand” – like that image I was using about being able to ride the fast horse and not be thrown off. 

So, there are many different ways of helping others. And one needs to think in terms of long-term help for others. As I say, this is a difficult thing, a difficult point in terms of interaction. Do you have to act in a certain way toward Westerners? Do Western teachers have to act in certain ways and so on? It's like when you are raising children. Not that I have raised children, but in theory, at least, it's not healthy to do absolutely everything for the child and to give them absolutely everything. You have to make the child work to earn things in order for the child to appreciate what it gets. If you do too much for the child, the child doesn't develop very well emotionally. I think that's true. So, the same thing applies to spiritual cultivation in the raising of somebody. 

So, we have that Buddhas have come, and they're present, and they're teaching. At least, the spiritual teachers are doing that. And in the texts, it says that we are very fortunate to be living in the time of Sakyamuni Buddha. That’s because of the thousand Buddhas who are prophesied to come in this eon, which is called the fortunate eon, it's only the first Buddha, the fourth (that's Sakyamuni), the eleventh (who is going to be the future incarnation of Tsongkhapa) and the thousandth (who will summarize the teachings of all the other Buddhas who came beforehand) that will teach the tantras. None of the others will teach tantra. So, this is another factor that is always explained in the texts about how rare it is that we live in the time of this particular Buddha who taught tantra.

Participant: Who found this out?

Dr. Berzin: Who found this out? I have no idea whether Buddha said so or somebody else said so. I have no idea.  And are the other versions of it? Probably there are. I have no idea. This is just what is in the lam-rims.

Participant: OK. So, this is a text. This is a section in the Lam-rim.

Dr. Berzin: I believe it's in the Lam-rim. I mean the particular teachings that I have that I am reading on this piece of paper in front of me come from Geshe Dhargyey's teachings, which are the basis. I did this book called An Anthology of Well-Spoken Advice, which was a compilation of twelve years of Geshe Dhargyey's teachings. It comes from that. 

Participant: It sounds a bit like Gelug.

Dr. Berzin: Well, it is Gelug. I'm sure the Karmapas must say that the Karmapa will be one of the Buddhas and that they'll teach. 

Participant: Yeah, yeah. OK.

Dr. Berzin: Everybody has a slightly different version. And why not? What difference does it make? Whether it's the number eleven or number forty-two or whatever, the point is that it's rare. It's rare that we have these methods of tantra, particularly anuttarayoga tantra, to access the clear light mind (which is what tantra is all about), the subtlest level of mind, which is the most efficient for being able to reach enlightenment. Being able to actually harness the energies of that subtlest clear light mind and work with them to produce the immediate cause for the body of a Buddha – this is what tantra is about. All the other stuff, all the rituals and stuff like that, are just methods to help us get to the point accessing the clear light mind and it's understanding, using it to understand voidness. 

In any case, we have the Buddhas, we have their teachings.

[3] There is a Living Tradition 

The third point is that those teachings have to be a living tradition. It's not just that the Buddhas taught but also that there is a tradition, a living tradition, of both the verbal teachings and the realized teachings, in other words, the actual words of the Buddha. They were passed down, first, with the monks reciting them after having memorized them. Then they were written down. Still, for the oral transmission, they have to be recited. In any case, the textual tradition is still there. There are some texts that are lost. They weren't translated into Tibetan, and the original Sanskrit texts are lost; they weren't translated into Chinese. Nevertheless, there is a lot of it still around. So, the verbal teachings are there and the realized teachings. 

In other words, there need to be living masters who have actually realized these teachings, who have actualized them in themselves. They are attaining what the teachings are talking about. Now, this might be very rare – and it is very rare – to actually meet any of these beings. It's very rare. There are some, like His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Most of the really highly realized masters of the old generation have passed away already, the ones who were able to train in Tibet. Still, there are some around. 

The younger generation? It’s hard to say. Do they have the same level of attainment as the older generation? Maybe. It’s more difficult now for the Tibetan Community in exile. Much more difficult. That’s primarily because most of them have to worry about raising enough money to feed the monks in their monasteries and to help rebuild the monasteries in Tibet. That's a terrible hindrance to being able to devote all your time to study and practice.

Anyway, the teachings are still being transmitted, the lineages are still there, at least most of them, and there are realized masters. 

[4] There is a Community of Other Practitioners

And then the fourth one is that there is a community of other practitioners. If we're all by ourselves, it would be very, very difficult – having no support. But there is a community that is trying to follow the example of the Buddha. 

I think that, here, it is not really the intention of this teaching to refer to the people who go to Dharma centers. The people who go to our local Dharma center might not necessarily be the greatest examples of intense practitioners who have actually managed to have some realization or attainments. Many of them might not be the greatest examples at all. And it's very unfair to judge Buddhism on the basis of the people who go to our local Dharma center. 

Even just the general monks and nuns, whether Western or Asian, might not be the greatest examples either, although the fact that they're devoting their whole lives is something that is exemplary – that they have taken on the vows and are, at least, trying to keep them. I think we need to limit ourselves to the ones that are trying to keep the vows. But within that group, there are quite a lot of people who are sincerely trying to practice and follow the example of the Buddha. 

It's very inspiring, sometimes, in India, to go to the monasteries in the South, to go to the debate courts and to see, at each of the monasteries, four or five hundred monks debating, screaming at the top of their voices, debating with each other – all the young monks are screaming out loud the texts that they have memorized – and to see all the various teachings that are going on and so on. It gives you inspiration. Maybe not all the monks are great examples, but here is a living thing. So, there is inspiration from that example.

The fourth point is really referring to a community of aryas. Well, that's not so easy to find – those having non-conceptual cognition of voidness.

[5] There are Patrons Supporting Dharma Studies

The fifth one is that there are patrons who are compassionately supporting the monasteries. In the West, the Dharma Centers and so on feed the monks, pay the rent, and so on. If there weren't that, it would be very difficult. There are those who are actually supporting spiritual efforts. 

So, it is wonderful if we have these, if we're born in a society that has all of these – teachers and teaching; the actual lineages are still there; there are intense practitioners, and there are people supporting them. 

So, all of these ten are summarized in these four wheels.

The Four Wheels

The first wheel, if we go back to the verse, “(Now,) you possess the four great wheels”: 

[1] “You live in a land that's conducive for Dharma” 

So, that's being born in the right place. That was the second of the personal enriching factors, being born in a central land. 

Then the next wheel is: 

[2] “You rely on hallowed beings” 

That's referring to the first three enriching factors of society. There are Buddhas… 

Participant: “Hallowed”?

Dr. Berzin: The term that I'm translating as the word “hallowed” is usually translated as “holy.” But I don't like “holy” teachers and “holy” Dharma. I think that that word is too strongly associated with some Western religions. “Hallowed” means very highly respected. A usage of the term in English is, for instance, the “hallowed halls of ivy.” “Halls of ivy” refer to the halls of the great universities that usually have ivy growing on the walls. So, in America, you have the “Ivy League,” which refers to the best universities. And the “hallowed halls of ivy” are the respected universities, the ones that are worthy of respect. Otherwise, instead of the word “hallowed,” you have to use either the word “holy” or the word “sacred.” The “sacred gurus”? The “holy gurus”? It's a little bit too weird. So, it’s better to use a word that is maybe not so familiar but that at least doesn't give a strange connotation because a lot of people think that Tibetan Buddhism is into worshiping gurus, worshiping the Dalai Lama, and so on. That's really not correct. 

So, the “hallowed” masters – the respected masters, masters that are worthy of respect. That refers to the first three enriching factors of society: there are Buddhas and gurus; they are teaching; and there are realized masters – they have realized the teachings, having followed Buddha's example.

Then, 

[3] “by nature you're prayerful” 

That would be the personal factor number five – that we instinctively believe in those things in which it's appropriate to place respect. So, we have respect. We are someone who makes prayers because we respect things. “May I continue to be able to have a precious human life. May I always be with the spiritual teachers. May I always be able to follow the ethical path.” So, this is being prayerful and having that respect.

Then the fourth wheel is: 

[4] “and in the past you've built up positive force” 

This is the personal factor number four, which is that we are not experiencing the disastrous results from having committed the most negative acts in the past. So, we don't have the mental blocks that are the result of having done the extremely strong negative actions. Instead, in the past, we have built up positive force.

So, the four wheels summarize these various enriching factors.

Participant: I find this “prayerful wheel” a little strange. I find it a little strange, in a way, to summarize having respect for ethics and so on. Being prayerful could also mean to be hopeful or…

Dr. Berzin: Well, he's saying (just to repeat) that he finds it a little bit strange. Again, do you arrogantly think that Nagarjuna wrote this in a strange way? Saying that you’re prayerful is a way to summarize that you have respect. In a Buddhist context, prayers are aspirations. So, you aspire, you wish, to attain something positive. Why would you wish to attain it? Because you have respect for it. If you didn't have respect for it, you wouldn't wish to attain it. So, the connection between being prayerful and having respect is that. OK?

Well, that finishes the verse. Next time, we have the verse that deals with the spiritual teacher. So, we will get into the discussion of the spiritual teacher, the qualifications of the teacher, and so on.