When Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche was teaching in Ireland several years ago, he learned how mussels are cultivated off the Irish coast. The farmers attach mussel seeds to long ropes that hang under water. Clinging to the ropes, the mussels grow until they are large enough to be eaten. Although there is nothing preventing these creatures from letting go and floating away, they remain in place until the ropes are pulled up and they are scraped off and boiled alive. For Rinpoche, this story illustrates the basic misunderstanding that rules our lives, causing every form of unhappiness and suffering that we experience. Just as the mussels hold tightly to their fatal rope, so too do we hold on desperately to our self, this all-important being we call me. Hearing about the mussels, Rinpoche said, made him “sad and curious.”
Rinpoche has been teaching the dharma for close to thirty years, since he was in his early twenties. He has taught on five continents, to people of every description, from a vast range of source texts. But every single teaching he gives is permeated by the same point. The only way to obtain the peace, joy, and fulfillment that all of us long for is by releasing our tight hold on me and turning our attention to the welfare of others.
These complementary aims can be achieved through the transformative practice of tonglen, also known as the exchange of self and other. Tonglen is the subject of this book. Though tonglen is extremely simple as an idea, the human mind is expert at complicating things. Because the exchange of self and other goes against the grain of our habitual self-centeredness, we put up many levels of resistance, from gross to subtle. Thus there is a lot to say about this subject.
Though Rinpoche is renowned for his ability to reach modern audiences and get to the essence of our particular brands of confusion, he has often found it beneficial to base his teachings on those of the great masters of the past. These traditional works show the timelessness and universality of Buddhist wisdom. They are also permeated by the blessings of all the subsequent generations that they have transformed. One of the teachings Rinpoche holds closest to his heart is The Mahayana Instructions on the Seven Points of Mind Training by the twelfth-century Tibetan teacher Chekawa Yeshe Dorje. This work broadly falls into the category of lojong (mind transformation) teachings, the essence of which is tonglen. Rinpoche has given volumes of oral commentary on the Seven Points. The book you are holding is distilled from more than one hundred hours of teachings Rinpoche gave between 2001 and 2015 in Australia, Ireland, France, Taiwan, and various parts of the United States.
This book came about as the result of two of Rinpoche’s inspirations. The first is his passion for tonglen and the Seven Points, and his conviction in their ability to transform people in the modern age. Second, this book includes a new translation of one of the most important commentaries of the Seven Points, The Seven Points of Mahayana Mind Training: A Guide to Benefit Those Embarking on the Authentic Path to Enlightenment, by Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye. From 2007 to 2012, Rinpoche led a program in northern India in which he taught twelve students how to translate the dharma from Tibetan into English. His Eminence Tai Situ Rinpoche named this group Vairochana’s Legacy, in honor of one of the greatest translators of Sanskrit to Tibetan. This rendering is the first fruition of their efforts. While it is not intended to supersede previous translations of Jamgon Kongtrul’s commentary (such as the excellent version by Ken McLeod titled The Great Path of Awakening), we hope that it will further illuminate what is already available, and that it will be a joy to read.
—JOSEPH WAXMAN