Practicing from the Heart: “Please Reverse this Sad Situation”

Kadampa Ryan 4. Practicing in Daily Life

I have spent the vast majority of my Dharma career being a Kadampa Vulcan, stuck in my head or intellectualizing or abstracting myself from all that I was experiencing. The Dharma just gave me powerful tools for doing that.

For me, one of the most important clarifications Venerable Geshe-la provides in Mirror of Dharma is when he explains the purpose of contemplation is to have the Dharma touch our heart, and it is only when it has touched our heart that we have found our object of meditation. For somebody who for decades viewed the goal of contemplation as arriving at clear intellectual understandings of the Dharma and the interconnections between the teachings, this was a revolution in my practice. This doesn’t mean we don’t also need to come to correct understandings intellectually, it means that is just the beginning. Our contemplation is not complete – we have not actually found our object of meditation – until we feel it in our heart. He then implored us, “please reverse this sad situation.” Mic drop…

When I was telling my story of all that had happened to myself and my family to a therapist, the therapist said, “wow, that’s a lot. But the way you describe it, it is as if you are talking about it in the abstract or what happened to somebody else.” This was a pivotal moment for me because she was exactly right. I think it is my defense or coping mechanism for dealing with all the hurt I have encountered in my life. I guess it is a trauma response not that different than what I’ve heard sometimes happens when people are being raped – their mind goes some place else because it is too traumatic to be where they are.

But something unexpected, but perhaps entirely predictable, happened when I started trying to reverse this sad situation. I became filled with rage. Rage at my father for hating my mom more than he loved us and for all the different ways he judged both me and my family over the years. Rage at my mother for not being able to emotionally hold it together as we were growing up and for her committing suicide the day before my wedding. Rage at others close to me for things I’d rather not discuss publicly.

But anger is the worst of all delusions, so repress, repress, repress. No wait, can’t do that. I need to acknowledge and accept the existence of delusions in my mind, take the time to see them for what they are and examine where they come from (thank you Gen Wangden for pointing me to the right place, you have a real skill for that).

So where did the rage come from? Even deeper hurt. But letting that out of the bottle, especially when I’ve been repressing it for 50 years, well, hurts. Overwhelmingly so. When I came back to India, everything that I had been repressing came flooding into my mind and it was overwhelming – more than I could handle. It became urgent to not feel such things. But the turning point for me was when Jim Travis told me, “feel it, brother.” This gave me permission to allow myself to feel the hurt I had been abstracting myself from. I then spent a week on retreat putting myself back together from a near total emotional meltdown.

Along the way, a dear friend told me when we allow our feelings to somatically pass through us – accepting them wholeheartedly instead of pushing them down or rejecting them – it unlocks the wisdom we need to heal our hurt. This was definitely my experience at the time and has been on a few other occasions since, but the Vulcan habits run deep and it is easy to slip into my old ways.

Enlightenment is not just the completely purified aggregate of discrmination, seeing all phenomena individually as manifestations of their emptiness. It is also the completely purified aggregate of feeling that according to Sutra is essentially the supreme good heart of compassion and bodhichitta and according to Tantra is the mind that genuinely feels great bliss when encountering anything (I would say compassion and bodhichitta are the substantial causes of the mind of great bliss. Opps, I did it again, another intellectualization when I’m trying to speak from my heart…).

To reverse our sad situation, we need to learn to practice from our heart. When we first embrace this way of practice, the truth is we don’t become more Zen or more kind-hearted, we become much more emotionally volatile. Again, like Spock when his human side comes to the surface and he has to battle the powerful emotions he had previously been repressing.

But here we discover a different problem: Culturally, within our tradition, we create little space for each other to be deluded or emotionally troubled. This is especially true for the so-called “senior practitioners.” There is so much pervasive pretension within our tradition, with people emotionally pretending to be all put together to supposedly show a good example. This leads to all sorts of “conflict averse” behaviors where people just pretend to be OK with what is going on when in fact they are not and there is very little ability to actually discuss these things with each other without being accused of being deluded or being a trouble maker or disturbing the harmony of the center or whatever. It is because I love my tradition that I point such things out. It is not a criticism, it is a diagnosis.

The truth is there is a great deal to which modern Kadampas use the precious Dharma Venerable Geshe-la has given us to repress and pretend, not accept and dismantle. I would say “please reverse this sad situation” is true not just at the level of our individual practice, but also at the level of us as a spiritual community.

So to all those who have known me for many years, I’m sorry if I have been a bit more emotional of late, even angry. Sorry for pushing conversations to put squarely on the table what I perceive is going on, even if it is uncomfortable to hear said out loud and it is easier to just pretend that all is OK both within myself and within us as a spiritual tradition. But you know what? Sorry, not sorry. This is where I am at in my heart. This is me practicing from my heart. This is me trying to reverse my sad situation.

Happy Tara Day: Causing the three worlds to shake

Kadampa Ryan How to Rely Upon Tara, Tara Days

This is the fifth installment of the 12-part series sharing my understanding of the practice Liberation from Sorrow.

Praising Tara by the light that radiates from the letter HUM

Homage to you who strike the ground with the palm of your hand
And stamp it with your foot.
With a wrathful glance and letter HUM,
You subdue all seven levels.

This also refers to Tara’s ability to engage in wrathful actions and can be understood from the above.  I’m not sure what the seven levels are.

Praising Tara by her Dharmakaya aspect

Homage to you who are happy, virtuous and peaceful,
Within the sphere of the peace of nirvana.
Fully endowed with SÖHA and OM,
You completely destroy heavy evil actions.

This verse refers to definitive Tara.  The conventional Tara is the green deity we know and love.  She manifests this form so that living beings can more easily develop a relationship with her.  But actual Tara is Dhamakaya Tara, or Truth Body Tara.  This is definitive Tara.  The Dharmakaya is a Tara’s realization of great bliss mixed inseparably from the emptiness of all phenomena.  She is referred to as the mother of all Buddhas because all Buddhas arise out of her Dharmakaya – she gives birth to them from her realization of bliss and emptiness.  What does the Dharmakaya feel like?  Happy, virtuous, and peaceful.  This is her inner pure land, and anytime we ourselves feel happy, virtuous, or peaceful, we are experiencing a similitude of her pure land.

Praising Tara by her divine actions of peaceful and wrathful mantras

Homage to you who completely subdue the obstructions
Of those who delight in the Dharma Wheel;
Rescuing with the array of the ten-letter mantra
And the knowledge-letter HUM.

Peaceful actions refer to a Buddha’s ability to pacify negativity, delusions, or their imprints in either ourselves or in others.  All living beings possess Buddha nature.  What does this mean?  It means we all possess within ourselves the potential for an enlightened mind, and all we need to do is purify our mind of all that defiles it and our natural enlightened state will be unleashed or uncovered.  What is our mind defiled by?  Principally three things:  negative karma, delusions, and their imprints.  Technically negative karma is also an imprint of a delusion which is why we normally say the “two obstructions,” referring to delusions and their imprints.  But from a practical point of view, we place particular emphasis in the early stages of our practice on purifying our negative karma (lower scope meditations), then overcoming our delusions (intermediate scope meditations), and finally the remainder of our contaminated karma (great scope meditations).  Tara can help us pacify all three of these, as explained by her ten-letter mantra whose principal function is to bestow all of the Lamrim meditations.  According to Tantra, the two main objects to be pacified are ordinary appearances and ordinary conceptions.  Ordinary appearances are phenomena appearing to exist independently of our mind (the things we normally see), and ordinary conceptions are grasping at the wrong belief that objects do in fact exist in the way that they appear.  For example, when we think of ourself, we see our ordinary body and mind.  This is an ordinary appearance.  When we grasp at them actually being ourselves, this is an ordinary conception.  Tara also has the power to pacify all our ordinary appearances and conceptions.

Praising Tara by her divine actions of wrathfully shaking the three worlds

Homage to TURE, stamping your feet,
Born from the seed in the aspect of HUM,
Who cause Mount Meru, Mandhara and Vindhya,
And all the three worlds to shake.

Buddhist cosmology is incredibly vast.  The universe as we know it actually only one world system.  There are the thousand worlds, which is a thousand world systems or universes as we know them.  There are the two thousand worlds, which is a thousand of the thousand worlds, or one million universes.  And there are the three thousand worlds, which is a thousand of the two thousand worlds, or one trillion universes.  In truth, there are countless universes, and the three thousand worlds is a shorthand for implying countless that makes it somewhat easier to grasp.  Just as the stars in the sky form galaxies, super clusters, and so forth, the three thousand worlds also cluster together and are arranged in different ways, so too the three thousand worlds cluster together and are arranged in particular way.  In the center of the three thousand worlds is Mount Meru, which is actually comprised of countless different pure lands at different levels of purity, such as the Land of 33 Heavens where Buddha went to teach his mother after she took rebirth there.  At the top of Mount Meru is Heruka’s celestial mansion.  Surrounding Mount Meru are the four major and eight minor continents, like an archipelago of different clusters of universes – they can be likened to superclusters of galaxies.  The universe that we live in is simply one of many universes in what is known as the Eastern continent, but is in reality just a cluster of universes.  Traditional cosmology as we know it just talks of our one universe where the Big Bang unfolded, but this one universe is as insignificant as our own planet is in our universe.  The vastness of Buddhist cosmology is almost beyond comprehension.  Interestingly, some astrophysicists have a similar view arguing we live in a multiverse, or a n-dimensional multiverse, but they have no idea how these universes are shaped.  Just as the science of quantum physics is gradually catching up with Buddha’s teachings on emptiness, it is only a question of time before science catches up with Buddha’s teachings on cosmology.  Tara’s blessings and power pervade everywhere.  Vajrayogini and Tara are actually the same being, just appearing at two different levels – Action Tantra version as Green Tara and Highest Yoga Tantra version of Red Vajrayogini.  Vajrayogini is in union with Heruka inside his celestial mansion atop Mount Meru and her wisdom is able to cause all three thousand worlds to shake!

Praising Tara by her divine actions of dispelling internal and external poisons

Homage to you who hold in your hand
A moon, the lake of the gods;
Saying TARA twice and the letter PHAT,
You completely dispel all poisons.

Conventionally, Tara’s blessings are particularly powerful at dispelling external poisons, such as those we might ingest.  I personally suffer from terrible allergies, some of which are deadly.  When I have a strong allergic reaction to something I eat, I of course take my Benadryl or other allergy medications, but I also recite with great faith Tara’s mantra requesting that she protect me.  Those who have allergies can do the same, even allergies as light as hay fever.  But principally, Tara’s blessing dispel the inner poisons of our delusions.  Outer poisons can at most harm us in this one life, but the inner poisons of our delusions harm us in all our future lives.  Considering our delusions to be inner poisons is a particularly powerful way of thinking of them.  If we ingested an external poison, we would do everything we can as quickly as we could get rid of it from our body or to take an antidote.  But we would never think that the poison is us, we see clearly the difference between the poison and ourselves.  In the same way, our delusions are not us, but they do terrible harm to us, and we should feel great urgency to purge them from our system.  Tara is the antidote to all of the inner poisons of delusions.  She is known as the Lamrim Buddha because she helps Atisha’s followers and her blessings specifically function to bestow Lamrim realizations.  Lamrim is like a net of virtuous minds that functions to oppose all delusions directly or indirectly.  By weaving the Lamrim within our mind, we protect ourselves against any possible combination of delusions, and thus achieve protection from all inner poisons.  

How to Engage in Vajra Recitation when Reciting Heruka’s Mantras:

Kadampa Ryan 3. Tantra

There are three ways of engaging in mantra recitation: verbal, mental, and vajra. Verbal recitation is when we verbally recite the mantras with our mouth and voice. Mental recitation is when we recite the mantras with our mind alone. Vajra recitation is when we imagine our guru is reciting the mantras for us in our mind as a blessing empowerment.

When we recite Heruka’s mantras, we imagine that our four mouths (from the four faces of ourself generated as Guru Heruka) and all the retinue deities (who are purified aspects of our guru’s subtle cannels and drops) recite the mantras like a collective chant as the mantras circle in and out of our central channel according to the visualization.

As they do so, we should imagine that they – who are seen as inseparable with our guru – are collectively reciting the mantras like a healing ceremony or a spiritual surgery by a team of enlightened doctors, bestowing the blessings of the function of each mantra we recite on our mind. We strongly believe this is happening and generate a profound feeling of joy.

We do all of this while maintaining deep faith in Guru Heruka, a bodhichitta motivation, single-pointed concentration, and an understanding that ourself, the mantras, and the guru deities reciting the mantras are all manifestations of emptiness.

We can engage in vajra recitation for the sake of ourself as described above or for the sake of others, imagining that we dissolve those we love into our self-generation, and then we – as Guru Heruka – perform vajra recitation on them, blessing and healing their mind as our guru does to us.

Such amazing spiritual technology!

Modern Bodhisattva’s Way of Life: Inherently Existent Objects Cannot Be Produced

Kadampa Ryan 2. Modern Bodhisattva's Way of Life

The third reason Shantideva gives to establish selflessness is reputation of inherent production of existents and non-existents. Before with the logical reasoning of the vajra thunder bolt we looked at the impossibility of inherently existent production from the side of the causes. Here Shantideva looks at the impossibility of either an existent or a non-existent being inherently produced, in other words looking at it from the point of view of the effect.

(9.145) If something is truly existent,
What need is there for a cause to produce it?
And if something is non-existent,
Again, what need is there for a cause to produce it?

First Shantideva shows there is simply a contradiction between saying an object is inherently existent and that it is produced. If it is inherently existent, then it exists inherently and therefore does not need to be produced since it already exists on its own. Likewise, it makes no sense whatsoever to talk about production of a non-existent since a non-existent does not exist.

(9.146) Even with a hundred million causes,
A non-thing will never transform into a thing.
If it remained a non-thing, how could it become a thing?
From what state could it transform into a thing?

(9.147) While it is not a thing, it cannot exist as a thing;
So when could it ever become a thing?
It would be unable to separate from being a non-thing
Without first becoming a thing;

(9.148) But without its being separated from the state of being a non-thing,
It is impossible for the state of a thing to arise.
Likewise, a functioning thing cannot become a permanent thing
Because, if it did, it would have two mutually exclusive natures.

Those the grasp at inherent existence say that an object is either inherently existent or inherently non-existent. In moment one for example the object does not exist, and those that grasp at inherent existence would say that it truly does not exist. It inherently does not exist. In moment two, those that grasp that inherent existence say the object inherently exists. Yet they have no explanation for how something can transform from a state of inherently not existing to a state of inherently existing. Transforming from being a non-thing to a thing. How does that happen? Where does the thing come from? Yet when it exists, we grasp it as having its own independent existence. All of this is quite impossible.

I’ll try to simplify with an example of a seed and a sprout.  If the sprout were truly existent, it would not need a cause, seed, to produce it.  It would be self-existent.  With respect to the sprout at the time of the seed, again it wouldn’t need a cause to produce it either since it is a non-existent.  So the question is how does an inherently existent sprout, a thing, come into existence from being a non-thing at the time of the seed?  This would be impossible. 

Essentially all we need to know is — something cannot arise from nothing.  Also, it cannot arise from that which is itself not an effect of some other cause.  It can only be produced from that which is itself a product, so nothing is inherently existent.

Realizing Non-Dual Karma and Emptiness:

Kadampa Ryan 3. Tantra, 4. Practicing in Daily Life

Gross and subtle ordinary appearances and conceptions can be understood from the side of the object and from the side of the mind realizing it.

Overcoming gross ordinary appearances essentially means a direct realization of emptiness in meditative equipoise on emptiness. At such times we perceive directly the mere absence of all the things we normally see. We have attained the first union of non-dual appearance and emptiness – the union of the appearance of clear light and its emptiness. We see the clear light as non-dual with its emptiness. We see the clear light as a manifestation of its emptiness. This is essentially the first profundity. From a sutra perspective, this is realized with a gross mind. From a tantra perspective, this is realized with our very subtle mind of great bliss. In Mirror of Dharma, VGL differentiates the union of non-dual clear light and emptiness and non-dual bliss and emptiness as two different examples of the union of appearance and emptiness. But it is still just the first profundity, just at a deeper level.

But to “complete the practice of clear light” we need to purify our obstructions to omniscience. Just as the conventional nature of the mind is so clear it can know objects, the clear light is to empty it can appear subtle conventional objects as non-dual with emptiness. In Eight Steps to Happiness, VGL explains that subtle conventional truths are not conventional truths, but ultimate truths. They are various things appearing directly as emptiness. An omniscient mind perceives “only emptiness” but it appears in myriad ways, of which the appearance of clear light is merely one. The non-dual appearance of myself as the deity, my car, my computer, my phone, Donald Trump, etc., are others. They are these various things appearing directly as emptiness or, from another angle, only emptiness appearing as various things.

In other words, to directly overcome subtle dualistic appearance – attain a realization of non-dual emptiness and subtle conventional truths (seeing subtle conventional truths directly as ultimate truths, only emptinesses), we need to train in the second, third, and fourth profundities, both in meditation and outside of meditation. We do it inside of meditation by meditating on non-dual profundity and clarity, for example with our self-generation meditation; and we do it outside of meditation by training in subsequent attainment, in particular according to the instructions of training in the meditation break explained in Tantric Grounds and Paths in the section on Isolated Body. This process of realizing the second, third, and fourth profundities itself occurs at two levels: at the level of our gross mind (Sutra) and at the level of our subtle and very subtle minds (Tantra).

I would also add even this explanation is not sufficient. We need to realize Nagarjuna’s intention according to the Ganden Oral Lineage. VGL explained this in his oral commentary to Mirror of Dharma and through the Gen-la’s in Arizona. The difference between the explanation from the perspective of the four profundities and from the perspective of Nagarjuna’s intention is we realize not only the union of appearance and emptiness (four profundities), but the union of karma and emptiness (Nagarjuna’s intention). We realize not just the union of appearance and emptiness, but the union of KARMIC appearance and emptiness. This is like the difference between realizing a static picture (four profundities of the non-dual Toyota and emptiness) and a dynamic karmic movie (seeing the Toyota driving down the street as the unfolding of karma inseparable from emptiness, seeing it as a manifestation of emptiness, seeing it as only emptiness appearing as a karmic unfolding appearing in this way). Realizing non-dual karma and emptiness is even deeper than the mere realization of non-dual appearance and emptiness of the four profundities according to highest yoga tantra. I think only when we realize non-dual karma and emptiness with our very subtle mind of great bliss do we actually remove the last traces of obstructions to omniscience and realize Nagarjuna’s (and Buddha’s) ultimate intention and attain full enlightenment.

Happy Protector Day: Preliminary practice of the Guru Yoga of Je Tsongkhapa

Kadampa Ryan Protector Days, Reliance upon Dorje Shugden

The 29th of every month is Protector Day.  This is part 4 of a 12-part series aimed at helping us remember our Dharma Protector Dorje Shugden and increase our faith in him on these special days.

Within the Kadampa tradition we are advised to practice the sadhana Heart Jewel as our daily practice as explained in the book by the same title.  If we are a Tantric practitioner, we engage in the Tantric version of this practice known as Hundreds of Deities of the Joyful Land According to Highest Yoga Tantra as explained in the Oral Instructions of Mahamudra.   In either case, the sadhana begins with the Guru Yoga of Je Tsongkhapa.  I will explain things from the perspective of Heart Jewel since it is a common practice. 

In general, the practice of Heart Jewel is the method for practicing the entire path to enlightenment.  There are three main parts – affectionately called a ‘Heart Jewel Sandwich.’  The first part is the Je Tsongkhapa part – the function of this part of the practice is to be able to draw closer to Je Tsongkhapa, the founder and source of the Dharma of the New Kadampa Tradition.  Through reling upon him, we receive his external and internal guidance to be able to realize his Dharma of Lamrim, Lojong and Vajrayana Mahamudra.  The second part is our Meditation on Lamrim, Lojong and Vajrayana Mahamudra.  We do this in the middle of the practice.  And the final part is the Dorje Shugden part – this creates the causes to be able to receive Dorje Shugden’s care and protection for being able to gain the realization of Lamrim, Lojong and Vajrayana Mahamudra.  This series of posts is primarily about how to rely upon Dorje Shugden, but I will nonetheless give a brief explanation of how to engage in the first two parts of the Heart Jewel sandwich. 

To actually engage in the Je Tsongkhapa part, we do as follows.  First, we generate the mind of refuge and bodhichitta – here we establish our motivation for engaging in the practice:  “With the wish to become a Buddha so I can help all the beings around me attain the same state, I will now engage sincerely in the practice of Heart Jewel, trying to generate the minds indicated by the words.”  Then, we engage in the prayer of the seven limbs and the mandala.  This accomplishes two main functions:  First, we accumulate merit – merit is positive spiritual energy.  It is like gasoline in our spiritual car.  Second, we purify negativities – negative karma prevents us from engaging in spiritual practices and is the substantial cause of all our suffering.  It is like lots of traffic and debris on the roads.  On this basis, we then recite the Migtsema prayer and prayer of the stages of the path.  These two enable us to receive the blessings of all the Buddhas through our living spiritual guide Je Tsongkhapa.  Blessings are like spark plugs which ignite the gas of our merit to push us along the road to enlightenment.  The migtsema prayer draws us closer to Je Tsongkhapa and enables us to receive the blessings of the wisdom, compassion and spiritual power of all the Buddhas.  The prayer of the stages of the path is a special prayer for requesting the realizations of the Lamrim.

At this point in the sadhana we typically engage in meditation on Lamrim.  Usually people use the book the New Meditation Handbook and cycle through the 21 Lamrim meditations explained there, one each day.  Alternatively, we can practice the 15-day cycle explained in Mirror of Dharma.  Instead of engaging in a daily Lamrim meditation, it is also possible for us to recite with deep faith one of the longer prayers of the stages of the path.  There are three main Lamrim prayers – the short prayer as explained in Heart Jewel, the middling prayer as explained in Oral Instructions of Mahamudra, or the extensive prayer as explained in Great Treasury of Merit.  When we recite the Lamrim prayers as our main Lamrim practice, we should do so slowly and from memory, trying to sincerely generate in our heart and without distraction the Lamrim minds indicated by the words.  For more information, we can also attend classes on the Lamrim at our local Dharma centers, including Foundation Program on the book Joyful Path of Good Fortune, which is our principal Lamrim text.  After our meditation, we recite the dedication prayer from the Je Tsongkhapa part of Heart Jewel.

For more detailed information, we can read in the book Heart Jewel which provides an extensive commentary.  Geshe-la has said that this is his most important book, yet sadly it is often overlooked.  It is available for sale at www.tharpa.com. 

We should also take advantage of the opportunity to attend courses on Heart Jewel at our local Kadampa center, and we should make many requests that our local teacher grant the empowerments of Je Tsongkhapa and Dorje Shugden.  What is an empowerment?  An empowerment in general is method for establishing a very close connection with a particular enlightened being.  The closer our karma with a given enlightened being, the more ‘bandwidth’ they have for being able to help us.  It is a bit like making a connection with a very special friend.  When we meet somebody very powerful and we have a close connection with them, we can more easily call upon them and ask them for help.

An empowerment is like receiving a personal deity within our mental continuum.  We can all appreciate the qualities of the different Buddhas, and think how wonderful it would be to know them and be able to call upon them.  But how much more wonderful would it be to have a personal emanation of a Buddha who is available for us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  During the empowerment, we receive our own personal emanation of Dorje Shugden into our mental continuum.  We will be able to develop a personal relationship with this Dorje Shugden and he will care for us.  Geshe-la once told a very senior teacher about the Dorje Shugden empowerment, “people need this empowerment, they need this protection.”

Modern Bodhisattva’s Way of Life: Impermanence Reveals Emptiness

Kadampa Ryan 2. Modern Bodhisattva's Way of Life

In the first of the three reasonings establishing selflessness or emptiness, Shantideva refutes inherently existent production.  Now the second reasoning, then, reasoning of dependent relationship.

(9.142) Effects do not come from anywhere else when they are produced,
They do not go anywhere when they perish, and they do not inherently abide.
They appear to be truly existent only because of ignorance,
But in fact they are like illusions.

(9.143) Examine something produced from causes
And compare it with an illusion conjured up by a magician.
Where do they come from when they arise?
Where do they go to when they perish?

(9.144) We can see that effects arise from causes
And that, without a cause, there cannot be an effect.
Thus, things are artificial, like reflections.
How can they possibly be truly existent?

This is actually quite useful for understanding subtle impermanence and production.  We can take three moments in the continuum of an object.  In moment one, the object of moment two does not exist, but its causes and conditions do.  In moment two, the conditions cease and the effect of the object appears.  The object is other than its conditions.  The objects of moment two are the conditions for the objects of moment three, and they too must completely cease for the objects of moment three to arise.  So in each moment, there are two things, a complete disappearance of everything of the previous moment and the complete arising of everything of the present moment.  Nothing remains at all.  Nothing to hold on to.

In reality production and cessation are simply two different points of view on the same process of change. From one perspective, there is cessation; from another perspective, there is production. We tend to grasp things remaining without changing. We might agree that things change on the margins, but we still grasped there being some sort of fundamental core essence which remains from one moment to another.  The teachings on impermanence show that there is nothing that remains from one moment to another.  There is just simply an ongoing continuum cessation and production.

In many ways impermanence reveals emptiness. Emptiness is the lack of inherent existence. Inherent existence is existence that does not depend upon anything else for its existence. If everything is undergoing continuous momentary change, then each moment depends upon the previous moment which shows that the object is not inherently existent.  Of course intellectually we understand that inherent existence doesn’t make any sense, but instinctively we grasp at this as being the case and we base our actions on those wrong views. Much of our ignorance remains hidden and it operates out of sight in the background not consciously. These sorts of teachings help us bring our implicit views to the surface enabling us to dismantle them.

It is important though that this not remain merely an intellectual exercise. We need to practically apply the teachings of impermanence to counter our delusions. Attachment wants to grasp on to things, but impermanence shows there’s nothing that remains that can be grasped onto. Instead, we learned to go with the flow and surf the endless continuum of change.

Where do the objects of the previous moment go?  They do not come from anywhere and they do not go anywhere.  They simply appear and dis-appear, since they were never anything more than mere appearances to begin with.  If we look more carefully at this, appearance and disappearance are just two different points of view on the same movement.  The disappearance of one is the appearance of the other.  If the object in moment two were truly existent, then this could not happen.   The fact that it does shows how things lack true existence.  This enables us to make the transition from impermanence to emptiness.  Since things like this object in moment two come from nowhere and go nowhere, they are like illusions, having no true existence at all.

Happy Tsog Day: Understanding the Truth of Samsara for Ourself and Others

Kadampa Ryan Tsog Days

In order to remember and mark our tsog days, holy days on the Kadampa calendar, I am sharing my understanding of the practice of Offering to the Spiritual Guide with tsog.  This is part 28 of a 44-part series.

Developing the wish to gain liberation

Being violently tossed by the waves of delusion and karma
And tormented by the sea-monsters of the three sufferings,
I seek your blessings to develop a strong wish for liberation
From the boundless and fearful great ocean of samsara.

Even if we take an upper rebirth, our situation is only temporary. It is just a question of time before we burn up the virtuous karma giving rise to our upper rebirth and we fall once again into the lower realms. Beings in the upper realms primarily just enjoy their good karma ripening. We can see this in our world with those who are extremely fortunate. How many dedicate their lives and their good karma to helping others? Besides Bill Gates, there is virtually no one. Taking an upper rebirth is extremely dangerous from a karmic perspective because we essentially create a bonfire for all our virtuous karma. Once it is burned up, all that remains on our mind is negative, and then we once again fall into the lower realms. Thus, to be in samsara is to be in the lower realms with only very temporary exceptions.

It is helpful to consider what exactly is samsara. In truth, it is a karmic nightmare that we are trapped in that we believe to be true. Everything we normally perceive does not exist, but we think it does, and as a result we suffer. To wish to escape from samsara, therefore is the wish to wake up.

How to practise the path that leads to liberation

Forsaking the mind that views as a pleasure garden
This unbearable prison of samsara,
I seek your blessings to take up the victory banner of liberation
By maintaining the three higher trainings and the wealths of Superiors.

All the so-called good experiences we have in samsara are in reality changing suffering – the temporary reduction of our discomfort. Eating temporarily reduces the suffering of hunger. Sleeping temporarily reduces the suffering of fatigue. Companionship temporarily reduces the suffering of being alone. The list goes on and on. And even if we were able to experience good things for all this life, we would still all inevitably get sick, get old, and die. We are imputing our “I” onto a sinking ship. From a tantric perspective, samsara is identifying with contaminated aggregates of body and mind. More profoundly, it is ordinary appearances and ordinary conceptions. These have all been explained in detail in previous posts. The point is, there is no lasting happiness to be found anywhere in samsara. If we contemplate this deeply, we see our only rational choice is to escape.

What are the three higher trainings? They can properly be understood as the process of letting go of samsara. The three higher trainings are higher moral discipline, higher concentration, and higher wisdom. They are called higher trainings because they are motivated by renunciation, the wish to escape from samsara. With higher moral discipline, we let go of deluded behavior. With higher concentration, we let go of our distractions being fascinated by samsaric objects. With higher wisdom, we let go of grasping at the things we normally see existing from their own side. In particular, we let go of grasping at our ordinary body in mind as ourself. Once we let go of samsara, it will gradually exhaust itself because it was never anything more than mere karmic appearance.

How to generate great compassion, the foundation of the Mahayana

Contemplating how all these pitiful migrators are my mothers,
Who out of kindness have cherished me again and again,
I seek your blessings to generate a spontaneous compassion
Like that of a loving mother for her dearest child.

Just as we are trapped in samsara, so too are all other living beings. But frankly, we generally do not care. Why? Because we do not think these other living beings are important, or that their happiness matters. Once we consider them to be important, then we consider how they too are suffering, and we will naturally generate a compassionate wish that they too escape from samsara. In the Lamrim teachings there are two principal methods taught for how to consider the happiness of others to be important. The first is to consider how all living beings are our mothers, and the second is to engage in the practice of exchanging self with others. In this verse, we train in the first method.

The logic here is very simple. Because we have taken countless rebirths in the past, we have had countless mothers. Where are all these mothers today? They are the beings around us. Buddha said there is not a single living being who has not been the mother of all the others. This is difficult for us to understand only because we fail to grasp the infinite past of our lives. We tend to think in very narrow terms just the human world on this planet. Time is without beginning, therefore there has been plenty of time for each and every living being to have at one point been our mother.

Some people also struggle with this meditation because they have a bad relationship with their mother of this life. For these people, considering how everyone is our mother does not help us to generate compassion for them because we do not like our present mother. There are two answers to this problem. The first is to see things in perspective. No matter how much harm our mother caused us after we were born, the truth is we would not even have this life if she had not kept us and kept us alive when we were younger. Thus, everything we have in this life is indirectly thanks to our mother. And even if she was abusive with us, this has taught us how not to be with others, and so even her negative actions have brought us benefit. The second way of avoiding this problem is to consider that all living beings are equally our child. We have been the parent or mother of all living beings at one point in the past. It is because our mother so mistreated us that we now wish to not repeat her mistakes and instead to care for all living beings as a good mother should that we can consider everyone as our child who we must care for. The point is to realize each and every living being is someone important whose happiness we should care for. It does not matter whether we reach this destination by considering how everyone is our mother or by considering how everyone is our child.

Modern Bodhisattva’s Way of Life: Understanding the Tantra-Prasangika View

Kadampa Ryan 2. Modern Bodhisattva's Way of Life

(9.141cd)And that a result, such as a sprout, does not exist in any of its causes and conditions,
Either individually or collectively.

If production does not come from self and it does not come from other then how can it come from both self and other. If neither inherently exists in itself or inherently exist another have any means whatsoever of producing anything, then how is it possible for these two things together to produce something?  If they could, then it would imply that an inherently existent self and an inherently existent other could enter into some sort of relationship with each other. But we have already established that that is impossible through the paradox of contact. If two things exist independently, they cannot come into contact with each other. If they can come into contact with each other and that produces a change, then that means these two things do not exist independently, but rather have a dependent relationship with each other period further if these two things together can produce an effect, then there is a dependent relationship between these causes and the effect. If there is a dependent relationship between the causes and the effect, then we cannot say that the causes exist in dependently because they have a dependent relationship with something else.

We will go into these sorts of arguments in much more detail in the next couple of verses on the logical reasoning of dependent relationship, and there is an extensive reputation of this in Ocean of Nectar.  We can also of course read in Meaningful to Behold and Heart of Wisdom.

So, how is any effect produced?  In every religion there is identified that which is the creator of all, isn’t there?  There is identified that which is the creator of all, a fundamental source or cause of everything that we experience.  There is the Christian god, Ishvara, the general principle, etc.  From the Buddhist perspective, the mind is the creator of all, but I think as well we have to understand that from emptiness, everything is created.   Emptiness, we can regard as the basis of all.  From emptiness, there manifests this world in dependence upon and as an effect of the collective karma of all the people who inhabit it.   We can see there are many similarities even with respect to the general principal, everything manifesting from a permanent general principal.   Everything manifests from the permanent object that is emptiness. Everything.  Everything arises from, as a manifestation of, emptiness. Everything.

Mind is the creator of all, but from emptiness, everything is created.  We experience indifference, pleasure, pain arising from emptiness as effects.  This world and our experiences of it, our pleasant experiences for example, are all manifestations of emptiness, creations of mind, aren’t they?  All arise from, or are manifestations of emptiness, creations of mind.

Effects and their causes are empty.  Empty causes produce empty effects.  Effects and their causes are empty, they are mere imputations of mind.  Everything that is a cause, everything that is an effect is mere imputation of mind.  But the mind itself is empty.  So all causes and effects are imputations of mind, and mind itself is empty.  Therefore, there is no creator other than mind, and mind itself is empty.  And it is from this emptiness that everything appears or manifests, again in dependence upon imputation of mind.

To make it very simple:  Objects arise in dependence upon karma, which itself comes from mental action.  Objects are maintained and discriminated by mind in the present.  If you look for anything other than these projections of mind, you will find nothing.  Mind is the actual creator.  Emptiness is what things are created from, made out of.  Things themselves are nothing other than projections of mind.  Mind itself is empty.  So all of these things are the nature of mind, which itself is empty.

We might ask why it is necessary to study these different schools of emptiness.  One reason is it gradually guides us to the correct view.  We proceed through the views, gradually leaving behind a series of wrong views leading us to the correct one.  By studying their objections, we identify our own objections to emptiness, and the response of the Prasangikas.

The main reason is our final view is the union of the Prasangika and the Chittamatrin view – the Tantra-Prasangika view.  This gives us a complete understanding, perfect understanding of how things are created.  We must understand cause and effect, and in particular, actions and effects, or mental actions, mental intention, and effects.  There are three main types of dependent relationship:  Dependent on causes and conditions, specifically karma, the substantial cause.  If we didn’t create the karma to see a flower, we wouldn’t see one.  If we did create such karma, we couldn’t not see one.  There is dependent on parts, for example parts of a flower.  And there is dependent on mere imputation, for example, mere name ‘flower’ imputed upon a basis of imputation.  But as well we need to understand that they are the nature of the mind too.   The flower is the nature of the mind itself.  By bringing in all of these elements, we gain a complete picture, perfect understanding, of how everything is created by mind.

If we think about it clearly, we will understand that nothing can take place, no effect can occur outside a mental continuum.  If it could, it would be inherently existent, wouldn’t it?  Nothing can take place, causes or effects, outside the mind, outside the mental continuum.  We create the causes within our mind to experience the effects that are both subject and object.  Everything is taking place within the mental continuum.  This is why our world is a subjective world.   Every effect that takes place, every occurrence, whatever we perceive, does not take place outside our mind.

The conclusion is all things are a mere karmic appearance of mind.  We need to try to bring all three together.  This is the final view.  Mere appearance.  Traditional prasangika view, mere imputation of mind.  Karmic appearance.  This unites karma and emptiness, it is an appearance arising from karma.  Of mind.  This brings in the Chittamatrin view, that objects are the nature of mind.  In this way, everything is created by mind.  Put another way, the emptiness of the mind manifests itself as appearances to mind.

If we understand all three, then we will gain a perfect understanding, a complete picture of how things are created.   If we understand this, we realize that we can create what kind of world we like, we can create what kind of people who are going to be living in that world, we can create the person, ourselves, who is going to be living in that world, we create all the experiences, we can create whatever experiences we like.  We create all these things, all of them, with our own mind.  All of them.  And where will they take place?  They cannot take place outside of our continuum.  If that is the case, then obviously we will feel entirely responsible for everything, won’t we?  Not even partly responsible, we will feel entirely responsible, won’t we?  We discussed before we are responsible for this world of suffering.  Let’s now destroy this world of suffering.  How do we do that?  Change takes place here in the mind.  The mind is the creator of an impure world, mind is the creator of a happy world, mind is the creator of a pure world.

Happy Buddha’s Enlightenment Day: We can do it too

Kadampa Ryan 7. Kadampa meaning of special days

Happy Buddha’s Enlightenment Day everyone!  April 15th of every year we celebrate and remember Buddha’s enlightenment.  It is one of the most special days on the Kadampa calendar and provides us an excellent opportunity to deepen our understanding of what enlightenment is, recall Buddha’s kindness in attaining it, and make a clear determination to attain enlightenment ourselves.

Understanding How Holy Days Work

There are certain days of the year which are karmically more powerful than others, and the karmic effect of our actions on these days is multiplied by a factor of ten million!  These are called “ten million multiplying days.”  In practice, what this means is every action we engage in on these special days is karmically equivalent to us engaging in that same action ten million times.  This is true for both our virtuous and non-virtuous actions, so not only is it a particularly incredible opportunity for creating vast merit, but it is also an extremely dangerous time for engaging in negative actions.  There are four of these days every year:  Buddha’s Englightenment Day (April 15), Turning the Wheel of Dharma Day (June 4), Buddha’s Return from Heaven Day (September 22), and Je Tsongkhapa Day (October 25).  Heruka and Vajrayogini Month (January 3-31), NKT Day (1st Saturday of April), and International Temple’s Day (first Saturday of November) are the other major Days that complete the Kadampa calendar. 

A question may arise, why are the karmic effect of our actions greater on certain days than others?  We can think of these days as a spiritual pulsar that at periodic intervals sends out an incredibly powerful burst of spiritual energy, or wind.  On such days, if we lift the sails of our practice, these gushes of spiritual winds push us a great spiritual distance.  Why are these specific days so powerful?  Because in the past on these days particularly spiritually significant events occurred which altered the fundamental trajectory of the karma of the people of this world.  Just as calling out in a valley reverberates back to us, so too these days are like the karmic echoes of those past events.  Another way of understanding this is by considering the different types of ocean tides.  Normally, high and low tide on any given day occurs due to the gravity of the moon pulling water towards it as the earth rotates.  But a “Spring tide” occurs when the earth, moon, and Sun are all in alignment, pulling the water not just towards the moon as normal, but also towards the much more massive sun.  Our holy days are like spiritual Spring tides.

What is Enlightenment?

Fundamentally, the entire Buddhist path is about attaining enlightenment.  This is a word that is used in many different contexts, even in modern society, but sometimes we lack a clear understanding of what exactly it means.  Geshe-la provides several different definitions or explanations to help us understand.

According to Sutra, Geshe-la explains in Joyful Path, “any being who has become completely free from the two obstructions, which are the roots of all faults, has attained enlightenment.”  The two obstructions are the delusion obstructions and the obstructions to omniscience.  Delusion obstructions are the presence of delusions in our mind.  The root delusion is self-grasping ignorance, which thinks we are the body and mind that we normally see.  From this comes self-cherishing, which thinks this self is supremely important and is willing to neglect or sacrifice others for its sake.  From these two, which are sometimes referred to collectively as our self-centered mind, come attachment and aversion.  Attachment mistakenly thinks some external objects are a cause of our happiness and aversion thinks other external objects are a cause of our suffering.  These four delusions together are the root of all of our other delusions, such as anger, pride, jealousy, deluded doubt, and so forth.  The obstructions to omniscience are the karmic imprints from our previous delusions and their corresponding actions.  Every time we engage in an action, it creates karma that gets planted on our very subtle mind.  Actions motivated by delusion create contaminated karma – karma that ripens in the form of samsaric experience.  These contaminated karmic imprints on our very subtle mind prevent the omniscient mind of a Buddha from arising.  When we remove the two obstructions from our mind, our pure potential, or Buddha nature, becomes completely unobstructed and we become a Buddha.  From this perspective, we are all Buddhas in waiting, we merely need to remove all that obstructs such a state from arising.  When we permanently overcome our delusion obstructions, we attain liberation; and when we permanently overcome our obstructions to omniscience, we attain full enlightenment.

According to Tantra, a Buddha is someone who has completely overcome ordinary appearances and ordinary conceptions.  Ordinary appearances are all of the things we normally see – our bodies, minds, enjoyments, others, worlds, etc.  These are the samsaric appearances that arise from our past contaminated actions.  Samsara is nothing more than a contaminated karmic dream.  When we purify our ordinary appearances so that they never arise again, samsara simply ceases to appear.  It dis-appears because, in fact, it never was.  Ordinary conceptions occur when we grasp at ordinary appearances as being true.  All ordinary appearances appear to exist from their own side, as being completely real and existing independently of our mind.  Things exist “out there” waiting to be experienced or observed, and it appears to us as if our mind has absolutely nothing to do with bringing these objects into existence.  Ordinary conceptions think things actually exist in the way that they appear – they really do exist out there, independently of our mind.  When we overcome our ordinary conceptions, we attain liberation; and when we overcome our ordinary appearances, we attain full enlightenment.  For somebody who has overcome their ordinary conceptions but not yet overcome their ordinary appearances, things will still appear to their mind in the way that they normally do, but the very appearance of these things will remind the person that such inherently existent things do not exist at all.  For example, if we look at a picture of the New York City skyline before 9/11, the very appearance of the World Trade Center will remind us that it no longer exists.

In the Oral Instructions of Mahamudra, Geshe-la provides a functional definition of enlightenment when he says, “Enlightenment is the inner light of wisdom that is permanently free from all mistaken appearance, and whose function is to bestow mental peace upon each and every living being every day.”  This definition not only explains what enlightenment is but also provides us with the definitive reason why we should attain it.  Since Mahamudra is a Tantric instruction, it too says enlightenment is permanent freedom from all mistaken appearance.  But this definition also describes what unique abilities we gain when we attain enlightenment, namely the ability to use our blessings to bestow mental peace upon each and every living being every day.  Happiness is a state of mind, therefore its cause must come from within the mind.  We can observe from our own experience that when our mind is peaceful, we are happy even if our external circumstance is terrible; whereas if our mind is not peaceful, we are unhappy even if our external circumstance is terrific.  Therefore, inner peace is the cause of happiness.  Buddhas are sometimes referred to as “inner beings,” or beings who live within the mind.  As inner beings, they have the power to directly touch the minds of other living beings (since despite all appearances our minds are not actually separate from each other) in such a way that their minds become more peaceful.  And they are able to do this directly to each and every living being every day forever.  Just as the sun shines equally upon all things, Buddha’s blessings shine forth into the minds of all living beings directly and simultaneously.  We attain enlightenment to gain that ability.

Buddha is So Kind Because He Teaches the Truth of Suffering

One of the hardest things for people to come to accept is that happiness cannot be found in samsara.  We are convinced that it can be, and we resist thinking that it can’t be.  There are two main causes of this resistance.  First, our attachment has been duping us since time without beginning that external objects are a cause of our happiness.  There are all sorts of pleasant things like a beautiful sunset, a delicious pizza, or great sex.  We have seen countless TV shows or movies, and almost without exception, they all have happy endings; so we think samsara must be the same.  When we hear that samsara is the nature of suffering and happiness and freedom are impossible to find in it, we think, “that’s just not true.”  The second reason we resist this is it seems to be an incredibly depressing thought.  It seems so pessimistic and negative to always talk about suffering and how terrible everything is – how about a little optimism here so we can retain some hope?  Things may be bad, but better to not think about it too much, otherwise, we will become overwhelmed by sadness and despair. 

When people first hear the teachings on suffering they think, “how can this possibly be a ‘Joyful Path,’ and how can thinking about so much suffering ever lead to happiness?”  We might think Buddhists are all “Debby Downers,” and Buddha’s teachings are actually preventing us from enjoying even the very modest happiness we are able to find in life by pointing out how such pleasures are not real happiness.  So we are left with nothing.  Buddha does not seem kind, he seems like the ultimate ‘buzz kill.’ 

How can we happily understand the teachings on the truth of suffering?  First, we have to be clear on their meaning.  Buddha is not saying there is no happiness, he is simply pointing out that we can’t find it in external things.  Ultimately, happiness comes from within the mind, namely through inner peace.  He further explains what destroys inner peace (delusions and negativity) and what causes inner peace (wisdom and virtue).  So he does not deprive us of happiness, he simply points out what works and what doesn’t – very useful knowledge!  Second, these teachings save us from wasting our time looking for happiness where we will never find it.  If we lost our keys, we might spend hours and hours looking all over our house to find them.  But if our daughter sent us a text message saying she accidentally walked off with them, we would not waste our time looking for them because we would know she has them.  We have been looking for the keys of happiness in samsara since beginningless time – searching, searching, but never finding.  Buddha comes along and tells us, “you’ll never find them in samsara, but you can find them by getting them from me,” we are incredibly relieved.  Third, he is not saying we can’t enjoy the sunset, pizza, or sex, he is saying from their own side they have no power to bring us happiness, but if we relate to them in a pure way, we can come to enjoy a far greater pleasure than we ever could have through ordinary means alone. 

But for me, his greatest kindness is he has provided us with a permanent solution to aging, sickness, death, and uncontrolled rebirth.  In the life story of Buddha Shakyamuni, Prince Siddhartha is given everything he could possibly want – riches, enjoyments, loving parents, a beautiful family, and adoration from all of his subjects.  Yet he realized that none of these things can provide him (or any of us) from the seemingly inescapable sufferings of birth, aging, sickness, and death.  Seeking a solution, he wanted to leave the palace and go attain enlightenment.  His father tried to stop him, and the Prince said, “if you can provide me with a solution to these problems, I will remain in the palace,” but his father had to admit, he could not.  The Prince then said he would leave the palace and return with a solution so that he could help his parents, his subjects, and indeed all living beings with a permanent method to escape such sufferings forever.  He then began his spiritual journey, and eventually attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree.  He conquered the cycle of death itself.  Instead of being reborn in samsara, he discovered methods to permanently wake up from it into the pure lands of the Buddhas.  The practices we have today are those that he taught, and if we sincerely put them into practice, we too can attain the same state.

Deciding to Become a Buddha Ourselves

Compassion is said to be the mother of all Buddhas since all enlightened beings are born from it.  Buddha attained enlightenment out of compassion for us – he wanted to help us also permanently escape the sufferings of samsara, the two obstructions, and ordinary appearances and conceptions.  Without his compassion for us, he would not have been able to purify his own mind to attain enlightenment and he never would have begun turning the Wheel of Dharma for us. 

But our ability to attain enlightenment depends upon ourselves generating compassion for others, just as Buddha did.  How do we generate compassion?  We first generate love for others, then we consider how they suffer.  It is said if we do this, compassion will naturally arise, but this is not entirely correct.  If we lack faith in a solution, then when we consider the suffering of those we love we will become overwhelmed with grief and sadness.  But if we realize there is a solution, then when we consider the suffering of those we love we will find their suffering difficult to bear because we will realize none of it need be.  They could be completely free. 

To transform this powerful mind of compassion into the personal determination to attain enlightenment ourselves, we need to add three things.  First, a feeling of personal responsibility for leading others to everlasting freedom ourselves.  We generate this mind by thinking, “if I don’t do it, who will?”  We might think, “well, Buddha will.”  But Buddha attained enlightenment so that we could do the same so that we could help these people who are karmically close to us. 

Second, we need to add confidence that we ourselves can attain enlightenment just like Buddha did.  Sometimes we think attaining enlightenment is just too difficult and we are too incapable to ever even contemplate beginning such an undertaking.  But as explained above, we all have a Buddha nature, we simply need to remove the two obstructions or ordinary appearances and conceptions from our mind, and our enlightened state will naturally be unveiled.  We each have enlightenment within us, we just need to remove all that obstructs it.  Further, we all have experience of being able to remove our faults somewhat and replace them with similitudes of inner qualities.  If we can do this a little bit, there is no reason why we cannot do so completely.  The methods we have are the exact same ones Buddha taught and have been practiced by millions of practitioners since.  Geshe-la calls them “scientific methods,” meaning everybody who investigates for themselves by sincerely putting the instructions into practice will likewise enjoy the exact same results – he guarantees it!  There is nothing we can’t do without persistent effort.  Our delusions are just bad habits of mind, but with effort, we can change our habits and thereby change our karma. 

Finally, we need to add an understanding of the special abilities of a Buddha to help others so that we see our becoming one is the only way we can rescue all living beings from their suffering.  Buddhas are fearless in helping others.  We tend to hold ourselves back for fear of what others might think or lack of confidence in our abilities, but Buddhas have overcome all delusions and all fear.  He fearlessly teaches the truth of suffering and worries not what others might think.  Buddha is also a deathless being.  In our present state, we can at best help a limited number of people in this one life, but a Buddha has transcended death, and so is able to continue to help living beings in life after life, gradually guiding each and every one of them to the enlightened state.  Buddha possesses omniscient wisdom.  We are quite ignorant and often have no idea how to help others.  We don’t understand karma, delusions, nor the causes of happiness or suffering.  But Buddhas see all three times directly and simultaneously, so they know exactly why people are experiencing the suffering they are and they know exactly what others need to do to make their way to the city of enlightenment.  Buddhas also have perfected their skillful means of helping others.  It is not enough to simply know everything if we are not able to actually skillfully help people come to realize the same things.  Buddhas know how to present the Dharma to others in a way that they can easily understand and practically put into practice, thus opening the door to liberation for them.  They know how to gradually guide people to enter, progress along, and ultimately complete the path to enlightenment.  If we become a Buddha ourselves, we too will develop the fearlessness, deathlessness, omniscient wisdom, and skillful means necessary to gradually lead everyone we love to the same state. 

When we combine our compassion which cannot bear the suffering of others with a feeling of personal responsibility, the confidence we can do it, and a firm understanding of the many qualities of a Buddha, we will naturally develop a strong determination to attain enlightenment ourselves for their sake.  This mind is called “bodhichitta,” or the mind of enlightenment.  It is the most virtuous mind a living being can generate.  In Joyful Path, Geshe-la says:

“Bodhichitta is the best method for bestowing happiness, the best method for eliminating suffering, and the best method for dispelling confusion. There is no virtue equal to it, no better friend, no greater merit. Bodhichitta is the very essence of all eighty-four thousand instructions of Buddha. In Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life Shantideva says: It is the quintessential butter that arises when the milk of Dharma is churned. Just as by stirring milk, butter emerges as its essence, so by stirring the entire collection of Buddha’s scriptures, bodhichitta emerges as its essence. For aeons Buddhas have been investigating what is the most beneficial thing for us. They have seen that it is bodhichitta because bodhichitta brings every living being to the supreme bliss of full enlightenment.”

Today is Buddha’s Enlightenment Day, which means if we strongly develop this supreme mind of Bodhichitta today – making the firm decision to work for as long as it takes to attain enlightenment ourselves – it will be the same as doing so ten million times.  Such a pure mind has the potential to permanently redirect the trajectory of our mental continuum and powerfully propel us towards the City of Enlightenment.  From there, we will be able to help everyone attain permanent freedom from all of their suffering for all of their lives.  What could be more meaningful than this?