The Supreme Good Heart –
Bodhichitta
We should maintain renunciation – the sincere wish to attain permanent liberation – day and night. It is the door to liberation – the supreme permanent peace of mind – and the basis of more advanced realizations. However, we should not be content with seeking merely our own liberation; we need also to consider the welfare of other living beings. There are countless beings drowning in samsara’s ocean experiencing unbearable suffering. Whereas each one of us is just one single person, other living beings are countless in number; therefore the happiness and freedom of others are much more important than our own. For this reason we must enter the Bodhisattva’s path, which leads us to the state of full enlightenment.
The gateway through which we enter the Bodhisattva’s path is bodhichitta. ‘Bodhi’ means enlightenment and ‘chitta’ means mind. Bodhichitta is a mind that spontaneously wishes to attain enlightenment to benefit each and every living being directly. The moment we develop this precious mind of bodhichitta we become a Bodhisattva – a person who spontaneously wishes to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all living beings – and we become a Son or Daughter of the Conqueror Buddhas.
This supreme good heart of bodhichitta cannot be developed without training. Je Tsongkhapa said:
Through watering the ground of affectionate love with cherishing love,
And then sowing the seeds of wishing love and compassion,
The medicinal tree of bodhichitta will grow.
This implies that there are five stages of training in bodhichitta: 1. training in affectionate love; 2. training in cherishing love; 3. training in wishing love; 4. training in universal compassion; and 5. training in actual bodhichitta.
TRAINING IN AFFECTIONATE LOVE
In this training we learn to develop and maintain a warm heart and a feeling of being close to all living beings without exception. This affectionate love makes our mind pure and balanced, and prepares the foundation for generating cherishing love for all living beings. Normally our mind is unbalanced; we feel either too close to someone out of attachment or too distant from others out of anger. It is impossible to develop the supreme good heart of bodhichitta with such an unbalanced mind. This unbalanced mind is the source of all our daily problems. We may think that some people are our enemies because they are harming us, so how can we develop and maintain a warm heart and a feeling of being close to such people? This way of thinking is incorrect. The people who we believe are our enemies are in reality our mothers of former lives. Our mothers of former lives and our mother of this present life are all our mothers and are all equally kind to us.
It is incorrect to reason that our mothers of former lives are no longer our mothers just because a long time has passed since they actually cared for us. If our present mother were to die today, would she cease to be our mother? No, we would still regard her as our mother and pray for her happiness. The same is true of all our previous mothers – they died, yet they remain our mothers. It is only because of the changes in our external appearance that we do not recognize each other.
In our daily life, we see many different living beings, both human and non-human. We regard some as friends, some as enemies, and most as strangers. These distinctions are made by our mistaken minds; they are not verified by valid minds. Rather than following such mistaken minds, we should recognize and believe that all living beings are our mothers. Whoever we meet, we should think ‘This person is my mother.’ In this way, we shall generate a warm heart and a feeling of being equally close to all living beings. Our belief that all living beings are our mothers is wisdom because it understands a meaningful object, which is that all living beings are our mothers. Through this understanding we shall experience great meaning in this life and in countless future lives. We should never abandon this beneficial belief or view.
We should contemplate as follows:
Since it is impossible to find a beginning to my mental continuum, it follows that I have taken countless rebirths in the past, and, if I have had countless rebirths, I must have had countless mothers. Where are all these mothers now? They are all the living beings alive today.
Having repeatedly contemplated this point we strongly believe that all living beings are our mothers, and we meditate on this belief.
THE KINDNESS OF LIVING BEINGS
Having become convinced that all living beings are our mothers, we contemplate the immense kindness we have received from each of them when they were our mother, as well as the kindness they have shown us at other times.
When we were conceived, had our mother not wanted to keep us in her womb she could have had an abortion. If she had done so, we would not now have this human life. Through her kindness she allowed us to stay in her womb, and so we now enjoy a human life and experience all its advantages. When we were a baby, had we not received her constant care and attention we would certainly have had an accident and could now be disabled or blind. Fortunately, our mother did not neglect us. Day and night, she gave us her loving care, regarding us as more important than herself. She saved our life many times each day. During the night she allowed her sleep to be interrupted, and during the day she forfeited her usual pleasures. She had to leave her job, and when her friends went out to enjoy themselves she had to stay behind. She spent all her money on us, giving us the best food and the best clothes she could afford. She taught us how to eat, how to walk, how to talk. Thinking of our future welfare, she did her best to ensure that we received a good education. Due to her kindness, we are now able to study whatever we choose. It is principally through the kindness of our mother that we now have the opportunity to practise Dharma and eventually to attain enlightenment.
Since there is no one who has not been our mother at some time in our previous lives, and since when we were their child they treated us with the same kindness as our present mother has treated us in this life, all living beings are very kind.
The kindness of living beings is not limited to the times when they have been our mother. all the time, our day-today needs are provided through the kindness of others. We brought nothing with us from our former life, yet, as soon as we were born, we were given a home, food, clothes and everything we needed – all provided through the kindness of others. Everything we now enjoy has been provided through the kindness of other beings, past or present.
We are able to make use of many things with very little effort on our own part. If we consider facilities such as roads, cars, trains, aeroplanes, ships, houses, restaurants, hotels, libraries, hospitals, shops, money and so on, it is clear that many people worked very hard to provide these things. Even though we make little or no contribution towards the provision of these facilities, they are all available for us to use. This shows the great kindness of others.
Both our general education and our spiritual training are provided by others. all our Dharma realizations, from our very first insights up to our eventual attainment of liberation and enlightenment, will be attained in dependence upon the kindness of others. as human beings we generally have the opportunity to attain the supreme happiness of enlightenment. This is because we have the opportunity to enter and follow the path to enlightenment, a spiritual path motivated by compassion for all living beings. The gateway through which we enter the path to enlightenment is therefore compassion for all living beings – universal compassion – and we develop this compassion only by relying upon all living beings as the objects of our compassion. This shows that it is through the great kindness of all living beings acting as the objects of our compassion that we have the opportunity to enter the path to enlightenment and attain the supreme happiness of enlightenment. It is therefore clear that for us all living beings are supremely kind and precious.
From the depths of our heart we should think:
Each and every living being is supremely kind and precious to me. They provide me with the opportunity to attain the pure and everlasting happiness of enlightenment – the ultimate goal of human life.
Understanding and thinking in this way, we generate a warm heart and a feeling of being equally close to all living beings without exception. We transform our mind into this feeling, and we remain on it single-pointedly for as long as possible.
Through continually contemplating and meditating in this way we shall maintain a warm heart and a feeling of being close to each and every living being all the time, in every situation. Having understood the eight benefits of maintaining affectionate love that are listed below in the section Wishing Love, we should apply continual effort in this practice.
TRAINING IN CHERISHING LOVE
This training has two stages: 1. equalizing self and others; and 2. exchanging self with others.
EQUALIZING SELF AND OTHERS
This practice is called ‘equalizing self and others’ because we are learning to believe that the happiness and freedom of ourself and all other living beings are equally important. Learning to cherish others is the best solution to our daily problems, and it is the source of all our future happiness and good fortune.
There are two levels of cherishing others: (1) cherishing others as we cherish a close friend or relative; and (2) cherishing others as we cherish ourself. The second level is more profound. Through cherishing all living beings as we cherish ourself we shall develop the profound universal compassion that functions as the quick path to enlightenment. This is one of the essential points of kadam Lamrim.
To train in equalizing self and others we engage in the following contemplation, thinking:
I must believe that the happiness and freedom of myself and all other living beings are equally important because:
(1) All living beings have shown me great kindness in both this and previous lives.
(2) Just as I wish to be free from suffering and experience only happiness, so do all other beings. In this respect, I am no different from any other being; we are all equal.
(3) I am only one, whereas others are countless, so how can I be concerned for myself alone while I neglect others? My happiness and suffering are insignificant when compared with the happiness and suffering of countless other living beings.
Having repeatedly contemplated these points, we strongly believe that the happiness and freedom of ourself and all other living beings are equally important. We then remain on this belief single-pointedly for as long as possible. We should continually practise this contemplation and meditation until we spontaneously believe that the happiness and freedom of ourself and all other living beings are equally important, which is the realization of equalizing self and others.
EXCHANGING SELF WITH OTHERS
This training has three stages: 1. contemplating the disadvantages of self-cherishing; 2. contemplating the advantages of cherishing others; and 3. the actual training in exchanging self with others.
CONTEMPLATING THE DISADVANTAGES OF
SELF-CHERISHING
What exactly is self-cherishing? Self-cherishing is our mind thinking ’I am important’ while neglecting others. When we think ‘I’ and ‘mine’ we perceive an inherently existent I, and we cherish it and believe that its happiness and freedom are the most important. This is self-cherishing. Caring for ourself is not self-cherishing. We need to care for ourself to maintain this human life so that we can continually apply effort to accomplishing its real meaning.
Self-cherishing and self-grasping are different aspects of one mind. Self-grasping grasps at an inherently existent ‘I’, and self-cherishing believes that such an ‘I’ is precious and that its happiness and freedom are supremely important. Self-cherishing is our normal view that believes ‘I am important’ and ‘My happiness and freedom are important’, and that neglects others’ happiness and freedom. It is part of our ignorance because in reality there is no inherently existent I. Our self-cherishing mind nevertheless cherishes this I and believes it to be the most important. It is a foolish and deceptive mind that always interferes with our inner peace, and it is a great obstacle to our accomplishing the real meaning of our human life. We have had this self-cherishing mind in life after life since beginningless time, even while asleep and dreaming.
In Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life Shantideva says: …
All the suffering there is in this world
Arises from wishing ourself to be happy.
Sufferings are not given to us as a punishment. They all come from our self-cherishing mind, which wishes ourself to be happy while neglecting the happiness of others. There are two ways to understand this. First, the self-cherishing mind is the creator of all our suffering and problems; and second, self-cherishing is the basis for experiencing all our suffering and problems.
We suffer because in our previous lives we performed actions that caused others to experience suffering, motivated by selfish intention – our self-cherishing. as a result of these actions, we now experience our present suffering and problems. Therefore, the real creator of all our suffering and problems is our self-cherishing mind.
Our present experience of particular suffering and problems has a special connection with particular actions we performed in our previous lives. This is very subtle. We cannot see this hidden connection with our eyes, but as already explained we can understand it through using our wisdom, and in particular through relying upon Buddha’s teachings on karma. In general, everyone knows that if they perform bad actions they will experience bad results and if they perform good actions they will experience good results.
The self-cherishing mind is also the basis for experiencing all our suffering and problems. For example, when people are unable to fulfil their wishes, many experience depression, discouragement, unhappiness and mental pain, and some even want to kill themselves. This is because their self-cherishing believes that their own wishes are so important. It is therefore their self-cherishing that is mainly responsible for their problems. Without self-cherishing, there would be no basis for experiencing such suffering.
When we are seriously ill we find it difficult to bear our suffering, but illness harms us only because we cherish ourself. If another person is experiencing a similar illness, we have no problem. Why? Because we do not cherish him or her. However, if we cherished others as we cherish ourself, we would find it difficult to bear their suffering. This is compassion. as Shantideva says:
The suffering I experience
Does not harm others,
But I find it hard to bear
Because I cherish myself.
Likewise, the suffering of others
Does not harm me,
But, if I cherish others,
I shall find their suffering hard to bear.
In life after life, since beginningless time, we have tried to fulfil the wishes of our self-cherishing mind, believing its view to be true. We have put great effort into seeking happiness from external sources, but have nothing to show for it now. Because self-cherishing has deceived us we have wasted countless previous lives. It has driven us to work for our own purpose, but we have gained nothing. This foolish mind has made all our previous lives empty – when we took this human rebirth we brought nothing with us but delusions. In every moment of every day, this self-cherishing mind continues to deceive us.
Having contemplated these points, we think:
Nothing causes me greater harm than the demon of my self-cherishing. It is the source of all my negativity, misfortune, problems and suffering. Therefore I must abandon my self-cherishing.
We should meditate on this determination every day, and put our determination into practice.
CONTEMPLATING THE ADVANTAGES OF
CHERISHING OTHERS
When we deeply think that others are important, and that their happiness and freedom are important, we are cherishing others. If we cherish others like this, we shall always have good relationships and live in harmony with others, and our daily life will be peaceful and happy. We can begin this practice with our family, friends and those around us, and then gradually we shall develop and maintain cherishing love for all living beings without exception.
In Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, Shantideva says:
All the happiness there is in this world
Arises from wishing others to be happy
If we think carefully about this, we shall realize that all our present and future happiness depends upon our cherishing others – upon our wanting others to be happy. In our past lives, because we cherished others, we practised virtuous actions such as refraining from killing or harming others and abandoning stealing from and cheating them. We gave them material help and protection, and practised patience. as a result of these virtuous actions, we have now obtained this precious human life with the opportunity to experience human enjoyments.
The immediate effect of cherishing others will be that many of our daily problems, such as those that arise from anger, jealousy and selfish behaviour, will disappear, and our mind will become calm and peaceful. Since we shall act in considerate ways, we shall please others and not become involved in quar-rels or disputes. If we cherish others we shall be concerned to help rather than to harm them, so we shall naturally avoid non-virtuous actions. Instead, we shall practise virtuous actions, such as compassion, love, patience, and giving material help and protection, and thus create the cause to attain pure and everlasting happiness in the future.
In particular, if we cherish all other living beings as we cherish ourself we shall find their suffering hard to bear. Our feeling that it is hard to bear the suffering of all other living beings is universal compassion, and this will lead us quickly to the pure and everlasting happiness of enlightenment. Just like all the previous Buddhas, we shall be born an enlightened Buddha from the mother, universal compassion. This is why our cherishing all living beings will enable us to attain enlightenment very quickly.
Contemplating all these benefits, we think:
The precious mind that cherishes all living beings protects both myself and others from suffering, brings pure and everlasting happiness and fulfils the wishes of both myself and others. Therefore I must always cherish all living beings without exception.
We should meditate on this determination every day, and out of meditation put our determination into practice. This means that we should actually cherish each and every living being, including animals.
THE ACTUAL TRAINING IN EXCHANGING
SELF WITH OTHERS
Exchanging self with others means that we change the object of our cherishing from ourself to all other living beings. This is impossible without training. How do we train in exchanging self with others? With an understanding of the great disadvantages of cherishing ourself and the great advantages of cherishing all living beings, as explained above, and remembering that we have made the determination to abandon our self-cherishing and always cherish all living beings without exception, we think from the depths of our heart:
I must give up cherishing myself and instead cherish all other living beings without exception.
We then meditate on this determination. We should continually practise this meditation until we spontaneously believe that the happiness and freedom of each and every other living being are far more important than our own. This belief is the realization of exchanging self with others.
TRAINING IN WISHING LOVE
With the understanding and belief that the happiness and freedom of each and every living being are far more important than our own, we generate wishing love for all living beings, thinking:
How wonderful it would be if all living beings attained the pure and everlasting happiness of enlightenment! May they attain this happiness. I myself will work for this aim.
We remain single-pointedly on this precious mind of wishing love for all living beings for as long as possible. We repeat this meditation again and again until we spontaneously wish that each and every living being may experience the happiness of enlightenment. This spontaneous wish is the actual realization of wishing love.
Wishing love is also called ‘immeasurable love’ because merely through meditating on wishing love we shall receive immeasurable benefits in this life and in countless future lives. Based on Buddha’s teachings, the great scholar Nagarjuna listed eight benefits of affectionate love and wishing love: (1) By meditating on affectionate love and wishing love for just one moment we accumulate greater merit than we would do by giving food three times every day to all those who are hungry in the world.
When we give food to those who are hungry we are not giving real happiness. This is because the happiness that comes from eating food is not real happiness, but just a temporary reduction in the suffering of hunger. However, meditation on affectionate love and wishing love leads us and all living beings to the pure and everlasting happiness of enlightenment.
The remaining seven benefits of meditating on affectionate love and wishing love are that in the future: (2) we shall receive great loving kindness from humans and non-humans; (3) we shall be protected in various ways by humans and non-humans; (4) we shall be mentally happy all the time; (5) we shall be physically healthy all the time; (6) we shall not be harmed by weapons, poison and other harmful conditions; (7) we shall obtain all necessary conditions without effort; and (8) we shall be born in the superior heaven of a Buddha Land.
Having contemplated these benefits we should apply effort in meditating on wishing love many times every day.
TRAINING IN UNIVERSAL COMPASSION
Universal compassion is a mind that sincerely wishes to liberate all living beings from suffering permanently. If, on the basis of cherishing all living beings, we contemplate the fact that they experience the cycle of physical suffering and mental pain in life after life without end, their inability to liberate themselves from suffering, their lack of freedom and how, by engaging in negative actions, they create the causes of future suffering, we shall develop deep compassion for them. We need to empathize with them and feel their pain as keenly as we feel our own.
No one wants to suffer, yet out of ignorance living beings create suffering by performing non-virtuous actions. We should therefore feel equal compassion for all living beings without exception; there is no single living being who is not a suitable object of our compassion.
All living beings suffer because they take contaminated rebirths. Human beings have no choice but to experience immense human sufferings because they have taken human rebirth, which is contaminated by the inner poison of delusions. Similarly, animals have to experience animal suffering, and hungry ghosts and hell beings have to experience all the sufferings of their respective realms. If living beings were to experience all this suffering for just one single life, it would not be so bad, but the cycle of suffering continues life after life, endlessly.
To develop renunciation, we previously contemplated how in our countless future lives we shall have to experience the unbearable sufferings of animals, hungry ghosts, hells beings, humans, demi-gods and gods. Now, at this point, to develop compassion for all living beings who are our mothers, we contemplate how in their countless future lives they will have to experience the unbearable sufferings of animals, hungry ghosts, hells beings, humans, demi-gods and gods.
Having contemplated this we should think:
I cannot bear the suffering of these countless mother beings. Drowning in the vast and deep ocean of samsara, the cycle of contaminated rebirth, they have to experience unbearable physical suffering and mental pain in this life and in countless future lives. I must permanently liberate all these living beings from their suffering.
We should meditate continually on this determination, which is universal compassion, and apply great effort to fulfilling its aim.
TRAINING IN ACTUAL BODHICHITTA
The moment we develop bodhichitta we become a Bodhisattva, a person who spontaneously wishes to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all living beings. Initially we shall be a Bodhisattva on the path of accumulation. Then, by following the path to enlightenment with the vehicle of bodhichitta, we can progress from being a Bodhisattva on the path of accumulation to being a Bodhisattva on the path of preparation, a Bodhisattva on the path of seeing, and then a Bodhisattva on the path of meditation. From there we shall reach the Path of No More Learning, which is the actual state of enlightenment. as already mentioned, 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. When we attain a Buddha’s enlightenment we shall be able to benefit each and every living being directly through bestowing blessings and through our countless emanations.
In Sutra teachings, Buddha says:
In this impure life of samsara
No one experiences real happiness;
The actions they perform
Will always be the causes of suffering.
The happiness that we normally experience through having good conditions, such as a good reputation, a good position, a good job, good relationships, seeing attractive forms, hearing good news or beautiful music, eating, drinking and sex is not real happiness, but changing suffering – a reduction in our previous suffering. Out of ignorance, however, we believe that only these things bring happiness, and because of this we never wish to attain real happiness, the pure and everlasting happiness of liberation and enlightenment, even for our own benefit. We are always searching for happiness in this impure life of samsara, like the thief who searched for gold in Milarepa’s empty cave and found nothing. The great Yogi Milarepa heard a thief rummaging around his cave one night and called out to him, ‘How do you expect to find anything valuable here at night, when I cannot find anything valuable here during the day?’
When, through training, we develop the precious mind of enlightenment, bodhichitta, we spontaneously think:
How wonderful it would be if I and all living beings attained real happiness, the pure and everlasting happiness of enlightenment! May we attain this happiness. I myself will work for this aim.
We need to have this precious mind of bodhichitta in our heart. It is our inner Spiritual Guide, who leads us directly to the state of supreme happiness of enlightenment; and it is the real wishfulfilling jewel through which we can fulfil our own and others’ wishes. There is no greater beneficial intention than this precious mind.
Having contemplated the above explanation, we think from the depths of our heart:
I am one single person but other living beings are countless, and they are all my kind mothers. These countless mother beings have to experience unbearable physical suffering and mental pain in this life and in their countless future lives. Compared with the suffering of these countless living beings, my own suffering is insignificant. I must liberate all living beings from suffering permanently, and for this purpose I must attain a Buddha’s enlightenment.
We meditate on this determination, which is bodhichitta, single-pointedly. We should practise this contemplation and meditation continually until we develop the spontaneous wish to attain enlightenment to benefit each and every living being directly, and then we should apply great effort to fulfilling our bodhichitta wish.