Bodhisattvacaryavatara, 22 May 1989, part 2

So there’s a verse in a text called the sevenfold training of the mind, in which it states, you know, whether I’m staying, abiding in my home or traveling about, whenever I meet a sentient being, I shall always try to please them. That I shall hold everyone I shall regard everyone as above myself and always hold myself as less than everyone else. So pride has the quality of one holds oneself above others. Others are you yourself are high and others are low. When in fact we should try to inverse this this way of thinking that regarding all sentient beings as higher than oneself and holding oneself as low in comparison to state quality of humility.

That that regarding developing the regard toward all sentient beings of caring, of respect. So this is the practice of Śāntideva, and and this is the way in which we ourselves should practice. However however much we bring happiness to sentient beings, to that same degree, the Buddhas are pleased. However much we cultivate love, compassion that we respect, we are we are are in it to that same degree. We are paying homage to the Buddhas.

And to the on the other hand, however much we harm others, to that same degree, are bringing harm to the Buddhas. So therefore, when talking about the practice, the practice is to benefit sentient beings, to help them and develop, cultivate love and compassion toward them and to abandon harming sentient beings. And this is the way to please the Buddhas. Just as if a person’s body were were burning, if if their actual body were burning, though they were though they were given delicious food, delicious drink, they would have no chance to they would have no chance to enjoy it if their body were burning. So, you know, if if they were if you were burning the a person’s body, no matter how much delicious food you put in their mouth, they wouldn’t be able to enjoy it.

Likewise, when sentient beings are being harmed, there’s no way for the Buddhas, the compassionate ones, to be happy. Just as in the example of the child where if the child were being hurt, there’s no way the mother can be happy. So the next verse is is the way in which Śāntideva himself practiced. He’s speaking from his own heart, and it would be very skillful for us to practice in like fashion. You know, I have, in the past, I have unknowingly harmed No, start again.

I have, in the past, harmed many sentient beings, but unknown to me that this was displeasing to the Buddhas. Now that I understand it, by harming others, I am am I am harming the Buddhas. And therefore, today, I lay bare, I declare all these negative actions that I that I’ve created, that and through the by the use of the four opponent powers, and seeking to to purify these these negative actions that I have created, and that I ask the the compassionate Buddhas to please bear with me. So this was the the way Śāntideva was expressing himself. And for us, we have to think for ourselves about all the harm that we’ve caused sentient beings.

That we’ve killed sentient beings, that we’ve stolen from them, that we’ve spoken harsh words to sentient beings. In various ways, we’ve caused hurt to others, either through our body, speech, mind. And beginning to consider all the negative actions that we’ve brought created with regard to sentient beings. We consistently harm others, then no matter whether we repeat, I go for refuge, I go for refuge, or we make various offerings and we can never please the Buddhas. And understanding this now, that we can begin to reverse ourselves from such a course of action that we can begin to declare all these negative actions and and, to acknowledge the fact that harming sentient beings only displeases the Buddhas, but bringing help and respecting, pleases the Buddhas.

And therefore, I seek I will try to reverse from this way of action in the future. And I ask I see this this way of conduct as mistaken, and I ask that the compassionate Buddhas please bear with me. Be tolerant and patient. So wondering what to do to in order to please the Buddhas. The Buddhas are pleased with when sentient beings are benefited.

And therefore, understanding this, that from, you know, developing the intention that from today I will this will be my practice. That is to to benefit, to help, to respect sentient beings, and to abandon harming them, to seek to become like a servant to all sentient beings. And no matter what occasions may arise, that I’m going to seek to respect and help sentient beings and abandon harming them. Even if others may harm myself, whether they even if they were to step on my head, I will I I will not retaliate. I will not seek to harm them in return.

And in this way, I will delight all the Buddhas. Do you think you could do that? What So this is the practice of Śāntideva. Even if someone were to step on his head and crush head, he would he would say thank you and respect him. So this is the practice of a bodhisattva.

That, you know, they had extremely powerful minds. They were very courageous. They had vast practices. They would they would only create positive actions and and not engage negative actions. So the there’s there’s a verse, the Lama Chöpa.

There’s a verse from, Offering the Spiritual Master in which, which shows the great courage of the bodhisattva, where he says, where she says, you know, not to speak of for the welfare of many, of all sentient beings, or many sentient beings, but even for the sake of one sentient being, that I will remain in the deepest I will joyfully remain in the deepest hell for eons. That is extremely long periods of time, even for the sake of one sentient being. So this is the type of courage that the bodhisattva has. So Nāgārjuna says that, you know, in that I will only even in will I will only I will never retaliate even in response to if someone were to beat me. That that in response that there is the he makes the prayer that though all the the negativities of sentient beings equal to space were to rain down upon me, That in return I would give away I would I would return I would give in return my happiness and all my positive potential, all my positive actions that I’ve accumulated.

This is the type of the kind heart, the fortitude and the courage that we’re seeking to develop. So one great master, Geshe Chekawa, who was a master of a practice of mind training. And he constantly was making the prayer, may I be reborn in hell for all sentient beings. He was constantly making this heartfelt prayer, may I be reborn in hell for the all for the sake of all sentient beings. So, you know, he at the time of his death, had during his always during this constantly throughout his life, he had been praying, May I be reborn in hell for the sake of all sentient beings?

And the moment of his death approached, at the actual time of his death, there appeared to him the place of his rebirth. And this was a pure land, a very blissful place. And he spoke to those around him, he said, Oh, my prayers haven’t been answered. I haven’t accomplished my prayers. He said, Make me a ritual cake, and I offer this ritual cake so my prayers will be answered, that I’ll be able to be reborn in hell for others.

That, in fact, the more we wish to help others, the more we’re willing to develop the courage of mind to be able to become the servant of others. That thought, for example, to be reborn in a lower realm, in hell, for the sake of others only creates more and more positive potential. That this courage creates personal power, and this can only help us enjoy more and more happiness, to be born in a higher and higher place. So in developing this force of mind, this courage in making such types of prayers, it creates only a very a positive potential. And therefore, it can only have the benefits of happiness.

Rather than going down, we can only go up. But normally, for us, we make such types of prayers as, I only want to be happy, I only want good things. And, making those prayers, in order to bring about those ends, we engage in a great deal of negative actions. Therefore, rather than fulfilling our prayers, the opposite happens. Rather than going up, we go down.

So if we were to, emulate the bodhisattvas such as Śāntideva and make such types of prayers, and then we could we too would only go up and not go down. So if you have we’ll spend the rest of remaining ten minutes or fifteen minutes on questions. Okay. So if you have any questions you’d like to ask. You have questions?

So in the same way, in the pursuit of happiness as a national goal, that we have to understand that I am one person and that others are many. And therefore, seeking the happiness of others, then there’s a greater happiness can be brought about in seeking happiness only for oneself. So this would be keeping with it as a national goal that the that the welfare of the of the majority is to be placed above welfare of the individual. And working for the happiness, it should be the majority of happiness rather than individual. So that though we might be one individual, it is dependent upon the quality of our motivation.

We determine the quality of the happiness, the welfare it’s going to produce. It has the potency, the ability of our efforts. If I were to recite the mantra, for example, for my own benefit, there would be some some good would come out of this. I would achieve some sort of happiness, perhaps. But if if instead, that it were directed for the welfare of all others, if I were to meditate on love and compassion, then the potency of this type of action would be multiplied and corresponding to the quantity of the intention.

That if I was directed toward all sentient beings, and developing a thought, I wish to benefit all sentient beings, And due to the number, the quantity of the of the object, and the the potency would be multiplied by that much. Just as in the case if you’re sweeping and you have a broom. If you try to sweep with one bristle bristle as compared to that has very little effect. But if there’s many bristles, you can get the job done very quickly. Likewise, the quality of our intention to benefit, if it’s only one, it has only that much potency, that much ability to bring happiness.

If it’s directed toward all sentient beings, a great number of sentient beings, it’s multiplied. The potency of actions, of our intention are multiplied correspondingly. Yes. I I think myself, my problem is all difficulty with the concept is that I believe in intellectual sense that that is it to develop this conviction that by following a path, a path, that you will achieve what? One that happens.

Okay. So no matter what your practice might be, it is most important that in making progress, the factors of faith and belief are most important over and above any practice that you might be engaged in. These are these are the most important factors, faith and belief. So this is, in general, can be applied to all all of the Dharma, the importance the central importance of faith and belief. But we apply it even more so to the practice of secret mantra, where the one’s progress in the path of secret mantra is based mainly upon the power of one’s belief in the practice.

So the main ways we can develop belief is through beginning to recognize that that the teachings as, that the teachings and the teacher are, are unmistaken, that we can’t find any errors, we can’t find any contradictions, we can’t find any faults. Beginning using your own reasoning power, examining the various doctrines, the various methods, and seeing if you can, in any way, harm them, if you can find any faults, if you can find any contradictions. When you exhaust this this this this examination, then to that proportion, belief in its effectiveness will begin to arise. So in this process of carrying on examination, we it’s necessary that first we have a great deal of listening. That without listening to what the doctrine and what the teachings and the various practices, then we don’t have anything to analyze.

We don’t have anything to work with. So the first step is in listening, gathering together various types of information, studying. Then we begin to reflect, upon what we’ve heard, try to ascertain its meaning, its relevancy, try to examine it to see whether there are any faults, any contradictions, try to ultimately develop an irreversible conviction that this is in fact a description of the way things are and this is an effective means to the goal, to my goal, developing a prime cognition or a valid cognition. And then having developed this conviction, then to begin to familiarize, that is to say meditate or cultivate this conviction with respect to the doctrine and gain realization. Begin to the process of integration.

And this is the process of of traveling the path, developing conviction and belief. Initially, it’s extremely important that we listen a great deal to the various teachings in Dharma. Having listened to the teachings, then we begin to reflect upon them, and we develop a definite conviction, a feeling of a definite conviction with regard to what we have heard. We’ve grasped the meaning, and we see no faults. And then beginning to meditate to cultivate what the practice is, and thereby gain the actual realization.