Entering the Middle Way, 18 April 1991, part 1

Begin by adjusting our motivation developing bodhicitta. We should begin by appreciating deeply the fact that we have found this precious life which has the capacity whereby to eliminate all our sufferings and to find complete happiness. So it’s necessary that more than just appreciate it, it’s necessary that we make use of it. We were not to use it, our human life will go to waste, and this would be a tremendous fall. How can we make use of our life?

What is the way that we can eliminate our suffering and find the happiness that we are looking for? That is the Dharma. So, this is the way that if we practice the Dharma, this is the way that we can fulfill the use of our life. It’s necessary that we be skillful in our practice of Dharma. That if we’re skillful in the way we practice, then with little difficulty we can amass great amount of skillful actions and great benefit will be derived.

But on the other hand, if we aren’t skillful, though we make great effort, we will have little success. And how are we to practice skillfully? This is done to develop a healthy attitude, a kind heart. Out of this healthy attitude, the kind heart, our conduct will be healthy, and out of that will come a great result, an extremely beneficial result, not only for oneself but also for others. And as with respect to healthy attitudes, if on the basis of love and compassion we develop an awakening heart, then there’s no greater healthy attitude that we can develop.

And on the basis of love and compassion, how are we to develop bodhicitta? That we should reflect by holding others more dear than ourselves, that I must, in order to free them from all suffering and to bring them complete happiness, eliminate all of my various faults and bring to consummation all of my excellent qualities. If for the sake of all sentient beings I eliminate all my various faults and bring in consummation all my excellent qualities, then I will be able to lead them to a state completely bereft of all suffering. So we’re going to cultivate for the next three minutes the healthy attitude of bodhicitta, that for the sake of all sentient beings, that I am in order to be able to eliminate all my various faults and bring the consummation of all my excellent qualities, that I am going to train in the various stages of the essence of the great vehicle Dharma, the vast and the profound supplement to the Middle Way. And if we can develop this attitude of bodhicitta motivation, then whatever we might do, whatever type of conduct might arise out of that, whether it’s meditation, whether it’s giving teachings, whether it’s practicing generosity, all the results will be tremendous benefit, not only to oneself, but also to others.

And so we seek to develop such an attitude for listening to this present teaching. If we can develop over the next three minutes such an attitude, then we will create skillful actions equal to space. Beginning with the fourth mind generation or the fourth chapter which reads, All attainments follow upon after ethics, cause of the two collections of merit and wisdom. The ground where effort claims is the fourth, the radiant. So it is said that there are various levels of qualities amongst human beings.

Are those with high degrees of qualities, middling and lesser degrees of qualities. And from what do the various degrees of qualities develop? And what is the cause of these levels of qualities? The cause is said to be effort. So, I mean, there are numerous varieties of excellent qualities.

There are the qualities of those who are expert in the area of the secular and those, for example, who are expert in the spiritual areas. So, for example, in terms of those who are considered experts in the area of the secular and have great qualities, these days there are great experts with a great quality of being able to play soccer well. Some people have the great qualities of being able to sing well. Some are great entertainers. And these are said to be great qualities of people.

There are many experts in these areas. So there’s no doubt that having such qualities as these act as a condition whereby to earn a great livelihood, and it’s extremely acts as a very fine, supportive condition for one’s life. But so being great in sports, etcetera, is a condition whereby we can have a great livelihood and many types of enjoyments. But the main cause for those various enjoyments lihood are our skillful actions that we’ve created. Being skilled in sports, etc, is a condition whereby bringing this about.

In the context of our present explanation, when we talk about excellent qualities, we mean the excellent in the area of skillful actions. And we said that the context of our present discussion when we speak about excellent qualities we mean the various types of skillful actions, and these skillful actions arise out of effort. We’ve discussed the first three of the six perfections the perfections of generosity, ethics, and tolerance. And in terms of generosity, talked about the benefits of generosity and the excellent quality of generosity. And then we went on to ethics and discussed the benefits of ethics and the excellent quality of ethics.

And then, two, the benefits of cultivating tolerance and its excellent qualities. And when one reflects upon these benefits and the excellent qualities of these perfections, one develops an appreciation of them, a general liking toward them, and one develops, having appreciated them, one develops an aspiration, this would be good for me to develop, understanding their nature. And out of this, one must make effort to actually generate them. Not having generated them previously, one newly generates them. Having actually developed them previously, one goes on to increase the level that one has attained thus far.

And this newly generated or the increasing the perfection comes about through the influence of effort. So all of the excellent qualities arise based upon effort. So what do we mean by effort? This is effort And is defined by Śāntideva where he says that effort is taking joy in the practice of skillful actions, the skillful actions of Dharma. That just as in the case of where we went to a park and we said, Did you have a good time?

Oh, enjoyed myself today. This kind of enthusiastic enjoyment of having done something. Likewise, by effort we mean having enthusiastic enjoyment in making effort at creating skillful actions is what we mean by effort. So we at times take joy and have enthusiasm for creating unskillful actions. For example, killing.

And here in making that effort to add these unskillful actions, we don’t call that joyous effort. Because here by effort, and probably better translated as joyous effort, we mean making effort at skillful actions. So what is the function and result of effort? In the attainment of Buddhahood it’s necessary that we accumulate the two collections, the collection of merit and the collection of wisdom. And in order to do that it is necessary to rely upon effort.

Effort in the various practices of creating merit through the practice of generosity, ethics, tolerance, bodhicitta. Making effort in these various types of practices brings about the accumulation of the collection of merit. But we also need to make effort in the collection of wisdom, and this is mainly contained within the realization of emptiness. So are the two ways, this is the function of effort to bring about these two collections, and the fruit is Buddhahood. So, as Śāntideva said that in the pursuit of Dharma, that if we make effort, then there’s nothing that we cannot accomplish.

But on the other hand, if we make no effort, no matter how wise the individual might be, he is just like a corpse. There’s nothing he will develop within himself. Whatever spiritual ends we may wish to attain, whether it’s liberation, enlightenment, Buddhahood, bodhicitta, realization of emptiness, if we make effort then we can realize these ends. If we don’t make effort then we will not. So the effort is the root of all excellent qualities, and it brings about it’s extremely beneficial in its function and brings about great results.

So, the opposite of effort is laziness, and up to this point there’s been some degree of laziness, but at the level of the fourth ground, one’s effort blazes forth like a bushfire. And therefore, because on this fourth ground the effort blazes forth, this ground is termed the radiant. Then the second verse describing how the light shines forth, flame, the fourth ground. There for the Sugata Child an illumination arises produced from a greater cultivation of the harmonies of perfect enlightenment surpassing the copper color, the copper color referring to the third ground. Related to the view of the self is extinguished.

And here the fourth grounder becomes an expert with respect to the 37 harmonies with enlightenment. We discussed these 37 harmonies of enlightenment previously and there were two presentations of the 37 harmonies with enlightenment. Those according to lower tenets which is considered a course explanation, the explanation in the Abhidharmakośa of Vasubandhu, and the explanation in accordance with the present text, the entering into the middle way, but also Precious Garland where it’s a subtle presentation. And here the fourth grounder has developed the wisdom expert in the 37 harmonies of enlightenment. For example, four mindfulness, the four mindful establishments, the four thorough abandonments, four legs of manifestation, five faculties, five powers, seven branches of enlightenment, and the eightfold path.

And this expert ability with respect to the subtle presentation of the 37 harmonies with Enlightenment, he has developed the fire of the exalted wisdom radiating forth with this mastery of these 37 Harmonies. So the coarse presentation of the 37 harmonies with enlightenment as set forth in the Abhidharmakośa of Vasubandhu. It is a coarse presentation and reliance upon which following that path as set forth one can only come to realization in terms of the view of the self, a view which realizes the emptiness of the self sufficient, substantially existent self. So these 37 harmonies with enlightenment are our path. If we, if following only the coarse path as set forth in the Abhidharmakośa of Vasubandhu, we cannot come to the realization of the view set forth by the Prāsaṇgika Madhyamaka school.

We have to follow the path of the 37 Harmonies with Enlightenment as set forth by the Prāsaṇgika Madhyamaka school in order to understand the subtlety of their view. So the fourth grounder has become expert with respect to the coarse and subtle presentations of the 37 harmonies with enlightenment. And it is for this reason that it is said that the light of the fire shines forth. And this fire, with respect to the heat of this fire burns away the grasping at phenomena and the grasping at the self of persons and all the afflictive emotions such that through the realization of the view then the coldness of the grasping at the self of persons and phenomena does not arise due to the heat of the fire of being expert with respect to the 37 harmonies. The fourth ground is associated with the perfection of effort.

And then the the next verse presenting mind generation, fifth ground. This great being on the ground difficult to overcome cannot be defeated even by all the demons. His concentration excels and he attains a great skill and knowledge of the subtle nature of the truths of those with a good heart So the text begins, the line begins referring to the bodhisattva on the fifth ground by this great being that refers to the fifth ground bodhisattva cannot be defeated by all the demons. And here demons there are four types of demons. There is the demons of the afflictive emotions, the demon of death, the demon of the Devaputras, and the demon of the aggregates.

So, first of these four demons is the demon of the afflictive emotions and this is the various type of emotions such as attachment, hatred, and delusion. The second one is the demon of mortality, which is the uncontrolled cessation of our life under influence of afflictive emotions and karma. We don’t have control over our death. And this uncontrolled quality is the demon of mortality. And the third demon is demon of the aggregates.

That is the contaminated aggregates which are appropriated under the influence of the afflictive emotions and karma and which necessarily go through the processes of birth, and disease, and death. So the fifth ground bodhisattva attains the wisdom in accordance with that fifth ground, and due to this he attains the qualities of being able to overcome all four classes of demons. And this fourth class of demons, the fourth class of demons, is the most difficult to overcome. And these are the Devaputras. And these are the various types of malignant beings such as Īśvara, etcetera, who are extremely powerful and they seek to interfere with those who are trying to practice the Dharma, who create obstacles to the attainment of liberation and harm beings in general.

And these demons are extremely difficult to overcome. That up to this point the fourth grounders and below, they aren’t able to overcome these types of demons. It is only the fifth grounder who is able to achieve this. And therefore, having achieved this very high quality, the fifth ground is then termed difficult to overcome in accordance with the difficulty of overcoming Devaputras. So on the occasion of Śākyamūni Buddha’s enlightenment in India at Bodh Gaya, just prior to his enlightenment, he sat on his seat and he said, I will not arise from this seat until I have attained Buddhahood.

And he went into a meditative equipoise having and committed himself to the attainment of Buddhahood. But he was assailed by hordes of demons who tried to kill him with all the various types of weapons, knives, spears, to prevent him from his attainment of enlightenment. But due to the force of Buddha’s meditative concentration on love, that all of the various weapons, the arrows and the spears, etcetera, transformed into flowers.