Recap
We are studying this great text, Wheel of Sharp Weapons, which is the earliest text in the lojong or attitude-training genre. It was written by the great master Dharmarakshita. This text speaks a great deal about the practice of tonglen, of giving and taking. The text starts out with speaking about the various types of karmic problems that we experience – different types of suffering – and what the causes for that are. In order to get rid of that syndrome, we see that it’s based on self-cherishing and that we need to change our behavior. When we resolve to do that, we do that not just in terms of ourselves but with the tonglen practice of taking on that problem from everybody and giving them the solution that we would give to ourselves. We practice tonglen with each of these verses, with each of these ways and in that way work on overcoming our self-cherishing attitude which not only causes us to create these problem ourselves but also would prevent us from wanting to be involved with helping others. By taking on the problems of others, we overcome the self-cherishing that would prevent us from helping others and extend our hearts out to others and our sense of responsibility our to others. In overcoming that type of self-cherishing, we also overcome the self-cherishing that causes us to act in that destructive way in the first place, to being on that suffering for ourselves. So, this practice of tonglen, as described in the text, works on several levels.
Then the text goes on to work on overcoming the root of the self-cherishing. The root of the self-cherishing is grasping for what we consider to be the true “me,” our true self, which is actually a false “me” – it doesn’t exist at all. This is a concept of a “me” that somehow is established, by its own power, on its own side, all by itself, independent of everything else. We think that either it is identical with some aspect of us, or it’s something which is totally different. Then, we practice this in terms of tonglen. In other words, we think of how we have grand plans, of accomplishing great things and noble things, but we jeopardize it in ourselves and it doesn’t work out. Why do we jeopardize it, what is responsible for that? What’s responsible is this false concept of “me,” and so we want to smash that – not only in terms of our own false concept but also in terms of the false concept that everybody else has. We want to take it on from everybody and offer them the actual solution. We invoke a very strong power here, the power of Yamantaka, to overcome this strong grasping for a solid “me” to overcome this strong habit that we have that causes all these problems. Yamantaka represents the very forceful aspect of discriminating awareness or wisdom that in its more tranquil forms is represented by Manjushri.
Then the text goes on to explain or review the tonglen practice of giving and taking. We want to practice this not only with self-cherishing, not only with grasping for the solid “me”, but also with the various disturbing emotions that derive from the self-cherishing and the grasping for the solid “me.” When we experience desire or attachment, when we experience anger of jealousy or pride or arrogance or naivety or stinginess – any of these disturbing emotions – we think how everybody has the same type of problem. We want to extend our scope of concern to not just ourselves but to everybody and give the solution to them. This is in terms of transforming the disturbing emotions into the underlying deep awareness that is the basic structure of these disturbing emotions. For instance, when we have attachment or desire, what’s underlying that is the individualizing deep awareness – the deep awareness with which we just individualize or specify one thing or one person. Then with grasping for a solid “me” or solid existence in general, we exaggerate the qualities of that one thing that we have individualized and specified and make it into the most wonderful things in the universe. Then we have to have it, if we don’t have it and if we have it, we don’t want to let go. In the first case, wanting what we don’t have – that’s longing desire; and not wanting to let go of what we do have – that’s attachment. We work with the tonglen practice in terms of the disturbing emotions as well. That is the section that we’re in now and we’re ready to go on to the next verses.
The Three Worse Rebirth States
We are up to verse 99 in the new literal translation and in the old poetical translation it should be verse 100. Let’s read the poetical version first:
Then for even the sake of but one sentient being may we gladly take birth in the three lower states. With enlightening conduct that never grows weak may we lead all the beings in miserable rebirths out of their sufferings and causes for pain.
The literal translation:
During that time, when we’ve undertaken to enter the three worse rebirth states, even for the sake of a single wandering being, may we lead out of the sufferings of the worse rebirth states (everyone there), never letting our great bodhisattva behavior decline.
“During that time” – the way that the verse starts – is referring back to the verse before, which was saying, “Till the time when we and all who have been our fathers and mothers attain enlightenment ... may we mutually (help) one another.” So, during that time, when we’re all working to achieve enlightenment, then when we have undertaken to enter the three worse rebirth states. That is a very heavy types of wish to enter these states, but that is what a great bodhisattva would wish for. A great bodhisattva doesn’t want to pray to be born in some pure land or something like that – although there are those practices for that. One could say that going into a pure land, where everything is conducive for becoming a Buddha more quickly, would be of great benefit. But there also is the great imperative to help everybody now as much as we can. That’s really what bodhisattva behavior is all about: building up positive force by helping others now as much as we can, with whatever abilities we have, whatever understanding, so that positive force becomes stronger and stronger so that we can overcome the obscurations that are preventing our liberation and enlightenment. To go to a pure land – well, that would require a tremendous amount of positive force as well. How do you build up that positive force? It’s by actually helping others.
There are of course numberless beings that we could help. We can help those who are in a human realm; we could think to help those who are very well off. We find examples in the life of Milarepa in which there were these three very wealthy sisters who met Milarepa on the road. Milarepa was dressed very poorly and was very thin and so on and the three sisters felt sorry for him: “You poor person, we feel so sorry for you.” Milarepa said, “Actually I’m the one that needs to feel sorry for you. With all your elegance and wealth and so on, you have a tremendous amount of suffering, a tremendous amount of attachment that will keep you bound to experiencing more and more suffering.” So of course we could help those who are in the better states, but what really we would want to do – and what our self-cherishing would prevent us from doing – is to help those who are really in the most difficult states.
We can see that in the human realm in terms of how many people have the courage to go and work at the Mother Theresa-type of homes for helping the dying beggars and poor people in Calcutta and other places. I saw some of these places in Kenya: in Nairobi I went to Mother Theresa’s place and I had never in my life seen such deformed children and I saw there. These nuns taking care of them, which was absolutely extraordinary. To be willing to work with lepers, to work with dying people or people with AIDS or cancer and so on – this takes a great deal of courage and strength. Particularly for working with the lepers, Mother Theresa said that you have to be totally willing to get leprosy. If you’re afraid of getting leprosy, leave – don’t even start to work here. You have to be completely open to that. That’s a real tonglen type of practice. You don’t have to be Buddhist to actually do that.
But here we are thinking more in terms of going to the worse rebirth states. These are the animal realm – the realm of creeping creatures; and the clutching ghost realm, where these spirits are completely overwhelmed with starvation and frustration and fear and paranoia; and the joyless realms, the hell realms. We would be willing to go there; we would pray to go there. There was one of these great Kadampa geshes who was always praying to be reborn in one of the worse hells in order to be able to help the beings there. He kept on praying and praying and then, on his deathbed, he was very unhappy. His disciples asked him why he was unhappy, and he said, “I’ve always prayed to be reborn in one of the worse rebirth states to help others, but I see, with my clairvoyance, that in fact I won’t be reborn there; as a result of all my positive force I’ll be reborn in a very wonderful situation.” That upset him – that his prayer didn’t come true.
We have to be very serious about this, which would be incredibly difficult. We always think, if we are somewhat into the Dharma, of having a precious human rebirth in our next lifetime. Some of us think in terms of pure land, but at least a precious human rebirth and continuing to be able to study the Dharma with our teachers and all the conducive circumstances and all of that. Well, what if we were reborn in one of the hells? What if we were reborn as a cockroach or something like that? It’s very interesting to think, what would we do if we were born in one of these realms? Would we be like all the other beings there? Obviously not. The point is to be there with such strong instincts, such strong force of personality, that even in that situation we would try to the others who are also in a similar plight – try to help encourage them, try to help them not to be so in pain and suffering. It’s hard to say of course how receptive the other beings would be. What can we do as a cockroach for the other cockroaches? I don’t know. So, one wonders how literally to take this. But I think that the idea behind it is to develop that courage: “I don’t want just wonderful things for myself, but I want wonderful things for others. I want these wonderful things for those who are most deprived of this. I want to somehow try to help them.”
Of course, if somebody is born in one of these worse states, they’re experiencing the ripened effects of their karma. You can’t change that; it’s already ripened. Again, it’s a little bit difficult to really know how much you can really help somebody in that situation, but the prayers and the thoughts are extremely important here. That’s why it says:
During that time, when we’ve undertaken to enter the three worse rebirth states, even for the sake of a single wandering being, may we lead out of the sufferings of the worse rebirth states (everyone there), never letting our great bodhisattva behavior decline.
In other words, never getting discouraged, always having the perseverance to continue. This is the armor-like perseverance: no matter how difficult it is, no matter how much time it takes, no matter how many beings there are, we’re not going to give up. We’re not going to lose our joyful perseverance – to experience it in a joyful way: “I’m happy to be able to do this.” Not complaining, not wanting sympathy from other people – “Oh look how wonderful I am in doing this really difficult thing;” not boasting about it, not even wanting any thank you or recognition. We want our bodhisattva behavior not to decline – not to get angry, not to be depressed. I think very often when we are in the most suffering states or when we are with others who are suffering a great deal – let’s say we do have sympathy and we do have love and concern for others and so we work in the Alzheimer’s ward at the old age home, or we work in one of these Mother Theresa places – it’s very difficult to have that joy and love without getting depressed, without getting overwhelmed by that. I know for some people, when dealing with really difficult cases, it’s very hard not to, at the end of the day, feel completely drained and completely exhausted and depressed. That we would have to fight. To not let our bodhisattva behavior decline means to not give in to things like that: “Ah, it’s just hopeless. What can I really do?”
The real question is how meaningful verses and practices like this are. Is that something that we really could do – to make a sincere prayer to be reborn as a cockroach or in a hell realm to be able to benefit others there? I must say, I would find that very difficult to be sincere about; you could say the words, but to really mean it? I think that would be very difficult. If I think of myself, to be very honest about it, I used to travel to very dangerous places to teach Dharma – all around the communist world, when it was communist, when it was forbidden in these places. Although it’s not going to hell realms, it’s a little bit in that direction because I knew and I saw that there were people there who sincerely wanted and were completely thirsty for Dharma teachings and didn’t have access to anything. It was very rare that anybody would go there – it was risky for them as well. I went and, in most places, it worked out okay; in some places, there was some trouble from the police and so on. But it worked.
If I examine my motivation for why I did that, I really didn’t think in terms of my personal danger; I didn’t really think in terms of “I’m a great bodhisattva and I’m going to go and save these people” – that this is my bodhisattva duty to go this. I must say, I didn’t feel like that at all. But what I felt was more like, “Well, this is just something that I need to do.” There wasn’t really a strong emotion attached with it; it just felt as though, “Yes, I have to do this.” And I just did this. If I look to the Dharma teachings to see what a Dharma reference would be for this type of attitude or this type of behavior, I’m reminded of a verse from Shantideva’s Engaging in Bodhisattva Behavior in which he says that suffering has no owner. Suffering should be removed not because it’s your suffering or because it’s my suffering, but simply because it’s suffering and it hurts. If one sees suffering and somehow you’re able to help and correct it, you just do it.
This was, I think, more the feeling that I had. It was easy for me to go, everything fell in place, it was so easy to be able to go these places. Even the money to pay for it, the visas – everything was just simple to be able to arrange, so in a sense the karma was there – and I just did it. It’s like if you live in an apartment building, like I do and you walk into the front entrance hall and there are these advertising newspapers and all this junk mail that has fallen on the floor. Well, somebody does come once every week of two weeks and clean up, but it really isn’t very nice, so you just pick it up. I just pick it up and put it into the trash bin that’s there. Why? It’s not because it’s my garbage mail; it’s not because it’s my neighbor’s garbage mail – it’s just garbage mail on the floor and it needs to be thrown in the trash bin. You just do it, without any thought of, “How wonderful I am, I’m going to do a bodhisattva deed and clean up for all beings, I will take the burden on myself, I will accept the suffering for everybody else. Or “I’m going to do tonglen, let me light a stick of incense.” You just do it. I get the feeling that that is the way to do it; you just don’t make any big deal out of it – you just do it. Not expecting a thanks, not to put up a little sign: “Apartment number so and so, I threw away the newspapers on the floor.” This is a very simple way in which we can practice this type of bodhisattva behavior. I think that’s bodhisattva behavior – not making a big deal out of it. You just very naturally do it. I must say, there was no particular moving emotion there as well – “Oh, I have such love for everybody in this building and such compassion for them to not suffer from seeing this ugly hall.” There’s no feeling like that; you just do it, because it needs to be done. I think that’s the key here: you do it because it needs to be done and I’m in a position to do it.
If you don’t feel anything, don’t worry about it. There are some people that have very strong emotions; I’m not one of those people. Certain emotions I feel strongly but normally my emotional state is fairly even. It’s like my website: I just do it because it needs to be done. It’s not that I’m thinking all the time of all the people that could benefit from it and love and compassion and these sorts of things; I just do it because it’s necessary. The karma is there that makes me able to do it easily: all the support, all the volunteers, all the helpers just happen. So, you just do it, without making a big deal out of it. I’m not at the level like His Holiness, who seems to experience joy all the time. I’m certainly not at that state. But you just do what needs to be done.
We can reflect on this verse to see how in the world we would really relate to this. Could I go to worse realms, would I want to help them of at least go into difficult situation? There are some people – Dharma practitioners, for example – who go to prisons and deal with bringing teaching and so on to very heavy criminals in prison. In Thailand, the monks have these special places for people dying with AIDS, which is very wonderful that they take care of them. Would we be able to do something like that? How willing are we to help those who are in really heavy suffering situations, or are we afraid? I don’t know if you’ve had the experience, but my mother and my father and both grandmothers were in these nursing homes in a very bad condition, with Alzheimer’s, with everybody in the section being completely out of it with Alzheimer’s. How do you feel in that situation? Most people feel quite uncomfortable, because you really have no idea how to relate to these people. What do you say to them? They can’t remember what you said two seconds ago, so what do you say to them? How do you deal with that discomfort? Are we willing to go? How would we handle that? That also is very much involved with the self-cherishing, isn’t it? Let’s reflect on that for a moment.
The Joyless Hell Realms
The next verse, in the old translation, is:
As soon as we’ve placed ourselves into their realm may the guards of the hells come to see us as gurus. May the weapons of torture they hold turn to flowers; may all harm be stilled, peace and happiness grow.
In the literal translation:
As soon as (we’ve landed there), may the guardians of the joyless hell realms come to recognize us as their gurus. May even the (rain of) sharp weapons turn into a shower of flowers and may peace and happiness flourish, with there being no more harm.
One wonders here: in going there, may they see “us as their gurus” – are they seeing us as a hell creature as their guru? Are we going there as a bodhisattva in the form of Manjushri or something like that and helping them? I don’t know. The word “rebirth” – being reborn there – is not used in the text; it’s talking about going there. On one level, we can think about being reborn there, like this great Kadampa geshe thought – so in our future lives, may we be able to go there. On the other hand, we can think in terms of how great bodhvisattvas can travel to all sorts of realms – and so may we be able to go there and help them. This is a very interesting point that I wanted to bring up: are we praying here for something that’s impossible? In a sense, it is impossible – that the rain of weapons is going to change into a rain of flowers and everybody’s going to be happy and immediately come out as a result of our being there and helping them. If that were possible, Buddha would’ve done that already. But Buddha said very clearly that a Buddha can’t take out somebody’s suffering like a pulling a thorn out of their foot. The power of people’s karma and the power of a Buddha are the same. There’s only a certain amount of energy in the universe; one can’t overcome the other. You can overcome your own karmic energy, but you can’t overcome other people’s karmic energy that’s causing all of this.
The more that you analyze these prayers – Shantideva’s tenth chapter is full of prayers like this: “May the heal realms turn to joyful things” and so on – what are we doing? We are wishing for the best for everybody. That needs to be very sincere. May I be able to help everybody even though we know that, as a Buddha, we’re not going to be able to just snap our fingers and cure everybody’s suffering. Even if we went to the heal realms, people probably wouldn’t be open to listening to us anyway. But still, the wish is there to be able to help them. I think this is what develops our character: it helps us to overcome the self-cherishing. What’s tricky here is if you think, “Okay, I’d like to go there but I really know that I can’t go there and I won’t go there, and there’s nothing I can do so this is just a nice wish.” Then you’re just playing a game.
That’s very tricky, isn’t it? Can you sincerely wish this even though you know that there’s not much that you can do in these realms? But you wish that you could, even though it’s impossible. What would be the benefit of that? The courage, mental power and determination: “I want to be able to bring everybody instantly to liberation and enlightenment. If I can a little bit, I’d be satisfied. I’d like to be able to be all-powerful even though I can’t be like that, but I wish that I could be. Whatever I can do, I’ll be happy about. So, I will aim for the best and whatever I can get that’s not quite that – that’s okay.” This is important when acting as a bodhisattva. Why is it important? Because very often we have this idea that, “Well, I don’t really know how to help people the best; I’m going to make mistakes, of course; I’m not going to know what to do, so better not even try to help anybody until I become a Buddha.” Well, that’s a mistake, isn’t it? I think that’s a little bit the danger in you become to fanatic about going to a Buddha land, to a pure land. “Well, there’s nothing really that I can do now” – you feel inadequate, therefore you want to a pure land and improve very quickly. That’s very noble, that’s very good – but if it means that you don’t do anything now to help others, even though what you’re going to do is going to be inadequate, then there’s some problem here.
“I wish that I could become a Buddha; I wish that I could become an omnipotent god even though that’s impossible” – that’s what we’re talking about here with these wishes. Wishing that you can just go there and all the weapons turn to flowers and everybody’s happy and all of that – that’s not going to happen. It’s not going to happen that I’m going to be a Buddha overnight either, but I’m going to try: “I’m aiming for the best, I’m aiming to be a Buddha” – that’s bodhichitta – “but I’ll be happy with any benefit I can give to others now.” That’s worthwhile. A bodhisattva wants to go in there and do whatever they can, even if it’s not going to be perfect. I can’t wait until I’m perfect before I help you. I know one friend who became a doctor and won’t practice as a doctor because she’s afraid that she’ll make a mistake. So, she doesn’t practice medicine even though she trained and is a doctor. That’s sad. Even if you do make a mistake – okay, you’re not a Buddha yet. Nevertheless, there is a lot of good that you can do as well, a lot of help that you can give. That strong determination to become a Buddha and, like with these prayers, even more than what a Buddha could do – how wonderful that would be. I think that’s the flavor here.
To develop that bravery, to develop that courage, what do you need to do? You need to overcome self-cherishing. “Poor me, I can’t do it, I’m inadequate, I just want to take care of myself – I can’t even do that well – and I’m hopeless in terms of trying to help anybody else.” Of course we don’t just focus all our attention on helping others; you have to also work on yourself at the same time. In the process of helping others, sure, you could develop patience, you could develop generosity, you could develop discipline, concentration and so on; but also you have to work on yourself, particularly in the area of understanding voidness, impermanence and so on. This is the sort of things so that you can actually apply in working with others – that’s the field where you apply it. You have to study, you have to meditate, you have to do all these sorts of things as well. So, a balanced program.
That was this verse:
As soon as (we’ve landed there), may the guardians of the joyless hell realms come to recognize us as their gurus. May even the (rain of) sharp weapons turn into a shower of flowers and may peace and happiness flourish, with there being no more harm.
Powers for Benefitting Others
Then the next verse in the old translation:
Then may even hell beings develop clairvoyance and take higher rebirths as men or as gods. By developing strongly the wish to be Buddhas, may they pay back our kindness through heeding the teachings and regard us as gurus with confident trust.
The literal translation reads:
Then, when even those in the worse rebirth states have attained advanced awareness and retention power (for the Dharma) and, having taken on heavenly or human bodies, they’ve developed bodhichitta, may they repay, with their Dharma (practice), the kindness received from us. May they entrust themselves (to us), having taken us as their gurus.
Again, we’re wishing for things that are not so easy to happen. “Then, when even those in the worse rebirth states have attained advanced awareness and retention power (for the Dharma)” – these are things that you attain as a by-product of an actual state of the first dhyana. That means they have perfect concentration and have gone even further than that. Well, you can’t really attain that in the worse rebirth states, as an animal or clutching ghost or hell creature, so this is again wishing for something that in theory couldn’t happen in that rebirth. It certainly couldn’t happen in that rebirth when they’re in the worst states, but may they eventually be able to attain that. These advanced awarenesses – there’s a whole list of them, of what one attains when as a result of this higher concentration. These are all powers that we are able to use for benefitting others; Atisha makes a big point of that.
First, the deep awareness of the divine ear: you’re able to hear sounds from very far away. When somebody’s in trouble or something like that, you can hear from very far away. Then, the advanced awareness of the diving eye: you can also see very far away and also you can see the situations where one can help. Then the advanced awareness of knowing others’ minds – that’s important for knowing what their problem is and what’s going on with them, especially when they’re not communicative, so you have a better idea of how to help them. Then, the advanced awareness of recollection of past situations – that’s referring to knowing past lives, so you have some idea of your karmic connections with other people; the connections that they might have; what instincts they have from previous lives – so that again you can help them better. Then, the advanced awareness with the state of mind that’s able to produce many different simultaneous emanations. Just by being totally focused, that state of mind produces emanations of yourself all over the place, so that you’re able to benefit others in many situations – that obviously is a very advanced, high attainment. Then, there’s one level that only aryas would have: advanced awareness of the depletion of tainted factors – in other words, you know what you actually have gotten rid of completely, what you have attained a true stopping of. We might think that “I’m rid of anger” but you’re not really rid of anger. You might not get angry for 20 or 30 years and then, all of a sudden, something happens and you get angry. This would be for an arya who knows that really “I’ve gotten rid of this level of disturbing emotion or whatever.” These are the advanced awarenesses.
Then, “retention power (for the Dharma)” – “retention power” is this very difficult word, “dharani.” Dharani is on one level a long Sanskrit sentence, usually, that’s repeated like a mantra; but dharani literally means “retention power,” to hold something. Its nature is mindfulness and discriminating awareness, so it’s a state of mind with which we can retain, without forgetting, both the words and the meaning of the Dharma, so that we’re able to uphold constructive states of mind and eliminate destructive ones. That’s the retention power for the Dharma – that’s the really meaning of dharani. We’re able to hold all the Dharma teachings – hold them in your mind, retain them. So, “even those in the worse rebirth states have attained advanced awareness and retention power (for the Dharma)” – obviously as I said they can’t really attain that in the worst states, but when they’ve attained that – “and, having taken on heavenly or human bodies” – they go to a better rebirth state – “they’ve developed bodhichitta” – obviously you can only develop bodhichitta in these states; it’s the same thing with these higher states of concentration – “may they repay, with their Dharma (practice), the kindness received from us.”
Aiming to Reach as Many Beings as Possible
In the relationship with the spiritual teacher, there are many ways to repay the kindness of the teacher in terms of helping the teacher in the work that he or she does in whatever way you can; or serving the teacher in some way, helping to support the teacher either financially or cooking for them or cleaning for them or going to the store for them or whatever; getting visas for them if that’s necessary so that they can go translating for them; supporting them with friendship, with kindness. But the best way to repay the kindness is with practicing the Dharma: actually practice and actually work on ourselves. Then, “May they entrust themselves (to us), having taken us as their gurus.” That doesn’t mean a big ego trip, that “I want everybody to be my disciple, I’m going to be the great guru” – not at all, but how wonderful it would be people could trust us as someone who is able to give sound, helpful Dharma advice. If they are receptive to me, may I be able to help them. Not everybody looked at Buddha Shakyamuni as their guru, so what can we hope for ourselves? But nevertheless, how wonderful it would be if we could reach more and more and more people, more and more beings. This is why when we do Mahayana practice, if we really do it in the correct way, then you always imagine a huge assembly of beings all around you. When you are reading a Dharma text or doing some practice, you imagine that you are leading everybody with this practice; that you are making it available and helping everybody. You imagine the whole universe filled with beings that you are helping.
You have this in the Mayahana sutras: when Buddha’s teaching, they have these unbelievable descriptions of the audiences, of millions and billions of beings, from all the different realms, all around the Buddha. You read that and you say, “Come on, this is a bit too much, how could that be?” But actually, it indicates a Mahayana practice. Because the larger number of beings that we imagine that we are helping, the more we build up the connection with beings to be able to actually help them. If we never think of anybody else benefitting from us and we don’t actually go out and help people, how will we have the karmic connection and how anybody else will have the karmic connection with us to be benefitted by us when become a Buddha? Look at His Holiness the Dalai Lama. When he goes out and teaches, tens of thousands of people come to listen to him everywhere; in India, sometimes a hundred thousand people come and listen to him. Wouldn’t it be wonderful? Not that we can make a lot of money by charging each person there and be thought of as great – that’s not the point; but to be able to reach so many people – that’s wonderful. That comes as a result of, in your practice, imagining these huge audiences all around you.
We all have that description, don’t we? When you’re doing prostration, all your male relatives on the right, the female on the left; enemies in front, friends behind; and then you leave everybody in prostration, or in recitation of some puja or something like that. It’s a great Mahayana practice if you can remember to do it. That’s why mindfulness is always stressed: mindfulness is the mental glue to hold on. In this verse it’s talking about dharani, the retention power, to retain the Dharma, hold on to it. What is the nature of dharani, of that retention power? It’s mindfulness and discriminating awareness: discriminate between what’s beneficial, what’s not beneficial; and mindfulness – hold on to it, don’t let go. It’s the mental glue, so that you remember to apply it whenever you’re doing a practice, whenever you’re doing anything.
We want to build up more and more connections with more and more beings, to be able to benefit them. That’s why one does this Maitreya prayer, for example: “May I be reborn at the time of Maitreya.” Maitreya is like the sun, so when the sun (which is Maitreya) rises over the mountains of Bodh Gaya, “May my flower-like mind open up and ripen from the sunshine of Maitreya’s teaching.” We didn’t have the karmic connection with Buddha Shakyamuni, but we have some karmic connection because we’re receiving his teachings. But we didn’t have the karmic connection to actually meet him, to be around when he was around. So, you pray to have that karmic connection with Maitreya, the next Buddha: “May I have this connection.” These karmic connections are very important. Despite the fact of beginnningless rebirth and that everybody’s been out mother so we must be connected with everybody – put that aside – still there could be stronger connections, more recent connections, connections that are reaffirmed and strengthened more than others.
So, we make this prayer: “May they entrust themselves to us.” Why would anybody trust us? Well, people trust you if you are sincere: if you know what you’re talking about, first of all; and you are sincere in your motivation – you’re not going to abuse them for some sort of selfish reason, you’re not going to take advantage of them, and you practice what you say. These are the ways to be a positive influence on others: you’re generous and kind; you speak kindly; you speak in a meaningful way – you don’t just speak stupidly and waste time; and act in a meaningful way; and practice what you teach. Then people trust you. If they trust you, then there’s a better chance that they’ll listen to your advice. Why would anybody come to you for advice or help if they don’t trust you? Nobody would even go to a doctor if they didn’t trust the doctor, would they? It’s very important in terms of being a spiritual teacher. You don’t have to be a spiritual teaching sitting on a throne and so on; just generally helping others in a very kind way. It’s important that we have all these qualities that will allow others to trust us, so we make this prayer.
So, that’s this last verse for today:
Then, when even those in the worse rebirth states have attained advanced awareness and retention power (for the Dharma) and, having taken on heavenly or human bodies, they’ve developed bodhichitta, may they repay, with their Dharma (practice), the kindness received from us. May they entrust themselves (to us), having taken us as their gurus.
Dedication
Let’s end here with the dedication. We think whatever understanding, whatever positive force, has come from this, may it go deeper and deeper and act as a cause for reaching enlightenment and truly being able to help others as much as in possible and to be able to do this as soon as possible.