Bodhisattvacaryavatara, 22 May 1989, part 1

For the sake of all sentient beings, I must attain perfect complete Buddhahood. In order to do that, I’m going to listen to this profound teaching on the great vehicle as a means to put what is taught into practice and thereby achieve my goal. Therefore, adjusting our motivation, developing a kind heart with the intention to achieve this in as a motivating force for listening to this teaching. So to continue the text, the quality of love. What we mean by love is the heartfelt thought that sentient beings not having suffering that they be endowed with happiness and the causes of happiness.

So essentially the wish that sentient beings have happiness and the causes of happiness. And therefore it is only sentient beings which have this eminent quality of acting as objects for us to cultivate love. The Buddhas cannot be an object of our love in this sense because we cannot they already have happiness, indescribable happiness. So it’s only sentient beings that we can develop can act as objects for us to cultivate love with.

So this is the unique quality of sentient beings as opposed to non-sentient beings, the Buddhists for example. You know, we generally can say that living being are those with life force. And amongst the various types of living beings, there are sentient beings and Buddhas. Those who have gone beyond ordinary states of existence who have no faults and achieved all excellent qualities. And the Buddhas simply cannot act as objects for our developing love.

They cannot act as objects for our cultivation of love or meditation of love. Since they have all the happiness, they have no causes of they have all the causes of happiness. Therefore, we have to look upon sentient beings as a unique cause, a unique object, a unique chance for us to cultivate love and therefore to develop ourselves. That in this way, it’s as if we’re paying homage to this unique quality and sentient beings that they possess, that they can act as objects for us to cultivate love. On the other hand, the Buddhas have their unique qualities.

They they have brought to the culminated fulfillment of all the qualities of their body, speech, mind. They exist within perfect bliss. And therefore, can be looked on as objects for developing respect. Objects for which we can pay homage that they are worthy of our reverence. And in and in doing this, we create a great deal of personal power, positive potential.

So this they act as a special object from this point of view for us to develop ourselves. So as was previously mentioned, that sentient beings and Buddhas are equal. We respect the Buddhas. Why don’t we respect sentient beings in the same way? That the Buddhas have a unique quality, in dependence upon which we can create our own personal power, positive potential.

For example, calling to mind their their far reaching qualities, developing faith, having reverence, we develop positive potential. Likewise, sentient beings have their unique qualities. In dependence upon them, we can practice generosity, cultivate love, compassion, develop patience. And therefore, they act as unique objects for us to develop also positive potential. That we should pay homage to them in the same way that we do the Buddha.

Since ultimately our own Buddhahood is going to be partly based upon our creation of positive power with regard to Buddhas and sentient beings. That we need both. Therefore, they equally act as a field for us to accumulate positive potential or personal power. Therefore, we should equally pay homage to both. But this is though we can say that they act as they’re equal in respect that we need both of them.

We need to depend upon both of them to achieve our ultimate in the Buddhahood. This is not to say that that the sentient beings are equal with respect to excellent qualities. That the Buddhas are boundless oceans of excellent qualities, and sentient beings are not. As we said that the as far as the culminated excellent qualities, the sentient beings do not possess them in the same way that the Buddhist do. But that’s not to say that sentient beings aren’t without beneficial qualities.

In fact, in dependence upon sentient beings and dependence upon cultivating love and compassion, we can accumulate the necessary positive potential for our own Buddhahood. Through the practices of generosity, ethics, developing an awakening heart, that we will achieve Buddhahood. And therefore, this is the unique excellent qualities that sentient beings have. That it is through the kindness of sentient beings that we’re able to develop ultimately our own Buddhahood. That we it’s the amount of accumulation of positive potential needed to achieve Buddhahood is in part created in dependence upon Buddhas and in part created in dependence upon sentient beings.

So the sentient beings and Buddhas equally share in our ultimate happiness, in the creation of our ultimate happiness. In this way, that since our ultimate happiness lies within Buddhahood, and that sentient beings equally share in in bringing this about, then there’s no and even if we were to offer, the text says, the entire three realms, that is to say, the entire universe to sentient beings, this would be insufficient to repay their great kindness that they’re showing to us by allowing us to by depend by giving us the opportunity to achieve our ultimate happiness, that is Buddhahood and dependence upon them. Just in the same way that if in order that a bird is able to fly in the sky and able to cross the great ocean to whatever his destination might be, it’s necessary that that he have two wings. Without without either of these two wings, he cannot fly. He cannot reach his destination.

Likewise, for for for we whose destination is the the the land of Buddhahood. It’s necessary to rely on the two wings of sentient beings and Buddhas in order to create the great accumulation of personal power necessary to achieve it. Without Buddhas, there would be no Buddhahood for us. Without sentient beings, we could not achieve a Buddhahood. So therefore, our ultimate happiness is equally divided and dependence upon sentient beings and Buddhas.

We rely half on sentient beings and half on the Buddhas. So by developing faith, paying homage, showing respect, making prayers to the Buddhas, we accumulate positive potential. And likewise, and with respect to sentient beings, also create positive potential. That the that the our ultimate culminated wisdom, that is the perfection of our own wisdom, which we will achieve with, is generated in dependence upon both sentient beings and the Buddhas. Therefore, through the practices of generosity, developing love and compassion, respecting sentient beings, that we will bring about our own welfare, own happiness, our own ultimate perfection and wisdom, and thereby reach our culminative status of Buddhahood.

We do this, you know, we’re seeking to develop all of these, paying homage to sentient beings, respecting them, generosity, developing love and compassion. We actually achieve our own ends and depends upon this. Whether sentient beings themselves are benefited or not, we ourselves are benefited by generating these states of mind, by collecting by accumulating this personal power that our ultimate ends will be achieved, whether or not it actually is of direct benefit to others. So a Buddha arises in this world out of out of great compassion. That the that the sole purpose for a Buddha appearing is to teach as a means to help others in their practice to achieve to go beyond their own sufferings, to achieve final happiness.

Therefore, the the kindness of the Buddhas is in their teaching. And the the and the purpose for their teaching, their motivation is their complete inseparability with identifying with the happiness and suffering of sentient beings. That their that their through their tremendous compassion and love, that they that their only happiness lies in bringing happiness to sentient beings. And as long as sentient beings suffer, they cannot be happy. Therefore, they seek through their teachings of the Dharma to benefit others.

Now, if from our side, the way we can actually please the Buddhists themselves is by pleasing sentient beings. By making sentient beings happy, we please the Buddhas. On the other hand, by harming sentient beings, we actually harm the Buddhas. So there’s a verse in the ritual prayer called Offering to the Spiritual Master, Guru Puja, in which it says, May I complete the perfections by remaining in deepest hells for the sake of even one sentient being, That I will willingly remain for countless ages, eons, in the deepest of hells for the benefit of eliminating the suffering of one sentient being. That this is bodhisattva’s motivating force of his life.

That he’s willing to give away his body, his wealth, and not only that, willing to devote vast eons of time, even to help one sentient being. And through helping one sentient being, making bringing happiness to one sentient being in this way, he pleases all the Buddhas. So by way of example, there’s three individuals. A mother, her child, and the child’s companion. Now the child, the mother cares a great deal for the child.

And if the child’s companion were to treat the child with great care, with great kindness, were to help the child, then obviously the mother is going to be very pleased with that companion, is going to have a great deal of liking for that companion since she is very much concerned with the welfare of her own child. And likewise, so this situation is very much like ours. We have the Buddhas on the one hand who care very much about sentient beings. Have a great deal of love for them. And if from our side we are the companions of sentient beings, if we were to help them, to care for them, to be concerned about their welfare.

And in that same way as a mother toward the your child’s companion, the Buddhist will be extremely pleased with us for helping those whom they love a great deal. And likewise, if in the case where the occasion occurred where the child was going to be killed for one reason or another, and the child’s companion said, Don’t kill that child. You kill me instead. You take my life. That, you know, considering the great love that the mother has for the child, if she were to see this situation, then she would be extremely overjoyed with this companion who would be willing to sacrifice his or her life for the sake of her child.

And then so the the situation is the same as those bodhisattvas who say, you know, rather than all sentient beings falling into hell, that it’s better that I fall into hell, that I that I’m willing to go to hell for the sake of sentient beings. And in the same way as the mother, the Buddhas are extremely filled with joy and pleased at such a a noble type of action. So it said that the way if we want if we want to please the Buddhas, then we should care and respect sentient beings. So there is a great deal of benefit in the Buddhist arising in in this universe that through the teaching of the Dharma that they that some were able to achieve their ultimate end, some achieved the goal of achieve the status of the bodhisattva, some created a great deal of positive potential. That all those who received the teachings and practiced them were were greatly benefited.

So this is the through the Buddhist teaching the Dharma, and by our means of our practicing it, that we will not only achieve in this life, but that we will achieve happiness in all our future lives. And this is all dependent upon the kindness of the Buddhist. And just in the same way that in the world that when when we are benefited, when someone helps us, that we it’s quite appropriate for us to return in like kind that to benefit them. On the other hand, if if someone were to help us to benefit us and we were to return their their help with harm, then this would be extremely inappropriate type of repaying their kindness. So in considering the great kindness of the Buddhas, we often make various types we often pay homage to the Buddhas remembering their great kindness, developing faith.

And in response to this, making an association with this, making all the various types of offerings. You know, maybe perhaps we offer light or incense. We offer food, etcetera. But and this is, you know, quite an excellent practice. It’s a way we can accumulate positive potential.

But that in itself is not sufficient. This is not what what ultimately will please the Buddhas. The Buddhas are very much like mothers and sentient beings to their child. That with in the same way that the mother loves and cares for a child and wishes only for a child’s happiness, likewise the Buddhas do towards all sentient beings. And therefore, the way that we can really pay homage to the Buddhas, the way that we can really repay the kindness that they have shown us is by caring, benefiting, and respecting sentient beings.

That this is what ultimately pleases the Buddhas the most. The word for offering in Sanskrit is puja, puja. And this means to please. And so that which is offered is done in order to bring to please the object of our offering. And therefore it is pleasing it is helping, respecting, caring for sentient beings, which is the greatest offering to the Buddhas.

But then on the other hand, if if we were to harm sentient beings or hurt sentient beings, if we were to kill them, then no matter if we make hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands of offerings to the Buddhas, they are not going to be pleased. That, in the same way that, if we were to, as a companion, to harm a mother’s child, for example, beat the child, then even if we were to give, all kinds of wonderful presents to the mother, the mother could never be pleased with us since she cares so much for her child. The text goes on to to speak of the Buddhas as, you know, one’s teachers, one’s guides, one’s instructors, that, you know, that they are they are in a status above us, in a sense that they are teaching us, they are guiding us, we are are following them, we are seeking they are they are benefiting us, we are being benefited by them. If these beings, our teachers, our guides, are willing to give, not only give away their wealth, but in fact, even their bodies to sentient beings, then how can we be filled with such self importance that we are even that we are willing to use and hurt sentient beings, to bring harm sentient beings for our own welfare when our teachers are willing to give them their own bodies, what to say of their wealth.

And that rather than being filled with our own self importance, that we should act as the Buddhas do and become the servants of all sentient beings, just as our teachers do. And this is how we really please the Buddhas. To we have to make effort at abandoning that which displeases the Buddhas and make effort toward that conduct which pleases the Buddhas.