6 :  WHEN WE RESPECT SENTIENT BEINGS, WE RESPECT THE BUDDHAS

VERSES 112–134

SEEING THE EQUALITY OF SENTIENT BEINGS AND BUDDHAS

Sentient Beings and Buddhas Are Equal in Deserving Our Respect

112This is why the Sage has declared

that “the field of living beings is one of the fields of merit,

the victorious conquerors are another field.”

For many have reached the highest goal by serving them.

113If one can find in both sentient beings and victorious conquerors

an equal access to the virtues of a buddha,

why is there this distinction of levels that refuses to sentient beings

the same respect shown to the victorious conquerors?

114The value of the intention is not derived from any intrinsic quality, but from its ultimate effect.

Therefore, the value of the intention of sentient beings

is the same as that of the victorious conquerors,

and they themselves are consequently equal to the victorious conquerors.

115The exalted character of sentient beings is due

only to the fact that one who has benevolent intentions toward them is worthy of veneration.

The exalted character of buddhas is due

only to the fact that one derives merit from faith in them.

116Living beings can be compared to buddhas

because they can contribute and participate in the attainment of buddhahood,

but in reality there is not one among them who could be compared

to the buddhas, who are oceans of unfathomable virtue.

Compassion for all sentient beings with the exception of one — the one we consider our enemy — is not great compassion, and without great compassion bodhichitta and enlightenment are impossible. Great compassion entails not only the wish for all sentient beings to be free from all suffering but also the determination that we ourselves will free them. This great compassion therefore relies on each and every sentient being: every hell being, hungry ghost, animal, human, demigod, god, and intermediate-state being. It includes our friends and those we consider strangers, but it also includes our enemies.

Shantideva compared the “field” of sentient beings to a buddha field. Because farmers rely on their fields of crops to earn their living, they take very good care of them — watering them, fertilizing them, protecting them from frost, and so forth. They think their crops are extremely precious. In exactly the same way, if we use the field of sentient beings to plant the thoughts of loving-kindness, compassion, and bodhichitta, we reap the crop of full enlightenment.

When we understand that all sentient beings are the field from which we receive all happiness, up to and including enlightenment, we will naturally want to take the best possible care of them, serving them in whatever way is best to repay their kindness. Even if we must give up our life — even if we must give up our life numberless times — there is still no way we can repay that kindness.

At present, we respect the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha and make offerings to them, because it is through relying on their guidance that we can attain enlightenment. When we understand that we equally need to rely on all sentient beings to obtain buddhahood, through practicing the six perfections with them, we will see that we should also respect and make offerings to them in the same way we do with the Three Rare Sublime Ones. Of course, the buddhas’ qualities are inexpressible and their intentions for us are unimaginable, and this is certainly not so for sentient beings. But, as Shantideva said, even though they are not equal in their qualities, they are equal in the results we obtain from them, so why do we not equally revere them?

To attain bodhichitta, we need to create an immense amount of merit through practices such as making offerings to holy objects. How could we make such offerings if it weren’t for sentient beings? Even a tiny stick of incense or a few grains of rice have come from the work of others. When we fly above a great city at night and see the millions of lights, these are an excellent offering to the buddhas, but who created all those lights? Sentient beings. If there were no sentient beings, there would be nothing to offer the buddhas. And there would be no buddhas, because they became buddhas by relying on the field of sentient beings.

Sentient beings are the foundation of our practice of generosity and morality, the cause of this perfect human rebirth. They are the foundation of our entire happiness, including enlightenment. They are our merit field, allowing us to create infinite merit by serving them. In that way, they are so kind. We cannot point to one sentient being who is kinder than any other. The whole path depends on all sentient beings.

Paying respect to sentient beings is the same as paying respect to the buddhas and bodhisattvas. If we help sentient beings, that is the best offering to the buddhas and bodhisattvas. If we take care of sentient beings, we take care of the buddhas and bodhisattvas.

When we work for sentient beings, we work for the buddhas and bodhisattvas, because that is all that they are ever doing. There is not one flea, one mosquito, one hell being, one god, one spirit that all buddhas and bodhisattvas, with their infinite wisdom and compassion, are not ceaselessly and tirelessly working for. When we save the life of that flea, we are doing the work of a buddha. When we cherish that angry person, we are doing the work of a buddha, because that is what the buddhas and bodhisattvas do. They cherish every being more than themselves. If we are unable to do that yet, by aspiring to and working toward that, we are pleasing all the buddhas and bodhisattvas.

When we understand the incredible kindness of sentient beings, we can develop loving-kindness and compassion for them. We can see that the only thing they want is happiness and to avoid all suffering, but while they are deluded there is no way they can attain even a little temporal happiness. And yet they are the source of all our past, present, and future happiness, including our eventual enlightenment. This is the main point we should feel in our heart.

Regardless of whether a sentient being loves us, we should sincerely wish them happiness from our heart, with a mind like clear water, unhindered by attachment or other emotional minds that cloud it. With such an attitude, no matter what they do to us, that mind of loving-kindness and compassion does not budge. The deep peace we get from them is something we couldn’t get from all the wealth in the world.

Sentient Beings Deserve Our Respect Because of Their Buddha Nature

117If one could find in a living being even a single atom

of the virtue of one of these unique accumulations of virtue called “a buddha,”

the three world realms would not be enough

to offer it its proper veneration.

118But, in living beings is present indeed, and most excellent,

a fragment of this faculty of producing the nature of buddhahood.

One should offer veneration to living beings

in proportion to this partial capacity.

Whereas we are correct in revering the buddhas because of their great qualities, these qualities are there in potential in all living beings. The nature of the mind of every sentient being is clear light; this is called our buddha nature. If we did not have this, there would be no way we could become completely enlightened. The mind is defined as that which is clear and able to perceive objects. Unlike the body, which is tangible — with color, shape, and form — the mind is colorless, shapeless, and formless. Only transient obscurations block the mind from perceiving things clearly, as they are. Empty from its own side, the mind has the potential already there. It is just a question of the right conditions coming together to actualize that potential.

We should understand that there is no distinction at all between the ultimate nature of a sentient being’s deluded mind and that of a buddha’s immaculate mind. In emptiness there is no such thing as “pure” and “impure.” Because there is no inherent deluded mind, it is possible to remove all delusions from the mind and to achieve all the realizations and attain omniscience. This is true of every sentient being. Like the sky covered in clouds is not the clouds, or the mirror covered in dust is not the dust, our mind is not our delusions. No matter how strong a being’s anger might be, they have the potential to remove even the imprints of anger from their mind, and the same is true with attachment, jealousy, and so forth. The essential quality of the mind is its purity; all obscurations are only temporary.

Cloudy weather happens because of causes and conditions coming together. Similarly, when other conditions happen, such as wind scattering the clouds, the sky becomes clear. When the delusions that temporarily obscure our mind due to causes and conditions are removed due to other causes and conditions, then the mind’s purity can manifest.

Just as a gong has the potential to make a sound, but it needs a stick and somebody using the stick to hit it to produce that sound, our buddha potential will be realized only when all the right causes and conditions are actualized. This can only really happen with this precious human body that we now have, something that animals such as crocodiles, cats, fleas, and so forth do not have. We could explain the whole path to our pet cat for an eon and it would still be unable to comprehend one word of it. On the other hand, we can use that knowledge to develop our mind and clear away our obscurations and develop our positive qualities. Within a few seconds of somebody explaining it to us, we can know with certainty that nonvirtuous actions lead to suffering and virtuous actions lead to happiness. That is something our cat cannot know.

Because at the most fundamental level there is no distinction between the mind of a buddha and that of a deluded sentient being, each deserves our equal respect. The difference is, of course, that we sentient beings have delusions and buddhas don’t.

At present, we have acquired not just a human body but also a perfect human rebirth where we are able to begin to allow our buddha nature to manifest. Other sentient beings also have this potential, but because the conditions are not there for them, their buddha nature remains dormant. This gives us a unique opportunity that they don’t have at present; it also gives us a huge responsibility. For the brief period we are in this human body, we can waste these perfect conditions we now have or we can use them to develop our potential and to help all other beings.

With this precious human body we have unbelievable freedom, limitless as the sky. If I am asked, “What is the meaning of this life? How can we use what we have?” I always reply that it is to help others in whatever way we can. We can give material comfort and safety to animals and humans, giving them food, shelter, and whatever they need physically. And for many humans we can give mental comfort, praising them and making them feel happy. More important than that is helping them to have happiness in all future lives. The most important service we can do for others, however, is to lead them to liberation and full enlightenment, to allow them to realize their full potential and become omniscient. That is the meaning of our perfect human rebirth.

ENLIGHTENMENT COMES ONLY THROUGH SERVING OTHERS

Serving Sentient Beings Pleases the Buddhas

119How else could we express our gratitude

to our true friends, incomparable benefactors,

the buddhas and bodhisattvas,

if we did not dedicate ourselves to serving living beings?

120Buddhas and bodhisattvas will tear their bodies,

and descend into the avichi hell for the sake of these sentient beings.

Whatever I do for the sake of these sentient beings is well done.

Therefore, I must in every respect behave kindly toward my worst enemies.

121How could I feel pride instead of humility

for these masters, for whose sake my Masters

have freely and without regret

given even their lives.

122When sentient beings are happy, the monarchs among sages rejoice;

if they suffer, buddhas are distressed.

Buddhas find satisfaction when living beings are satisfied.

The sages are hurt when a sentient being is offended or harmed.

123Like someone whose body is totally enveloped in flames

will find no pleasure in any sense object whatsoever,

in the same manner those whose whole being is compassion

will find no reason for joy as long as living beings are suffering.

Arya Asanga50 said that benefiting one sentient being is more meaningful than making offerings not just to one buddha but to buddhas and bodhisattvas equaling the atoms of the world. This is because helping sentient beings is the very best offering we can make to the buddhas.

When we have bodhichitta, offering any service to a sentient being is the happiest thing in our life. Even before reaching that stage, we can understand how every happiness we have ever experienced comes from every sentient being and so see how incredibly kind they are. From that, the spontaneous wish to help them arises. Then we offer whatever help we can, wherever it is needed, even the tiniest thing. Seeing how precious sentient beings are, we are so happy to help whenever we have the opportunity.

This is not something that comes naturally. We are habituated to following our own self-interest, unlike the buddhas and bodhisattvas, who utterly disregard their own interests and only work tirelessly for all other sentient beings.

When we consider the kindness of others, it is unthinkable that we ignore them all and thoughtlessly just enjoy ourselves. It would be like sitting up in the bough of a tree heartlessly looking down at our kind mother being attacked by a tiger. We have eyes, we have the eye of wisdom, whereas our kind mother sentient beings are blind and have no opportunity to help themselves. How can we turn our back on them while they are drowning in such great suffering?

We need to turn our attitude around and learn to work only for others. We have a choice to make every second of the day — either we work for our own selfish interests or for others. We are used to making choices, but before, our choices would have been between the better of two samsaric situations or between profit or loss at work. Now the choice is so simple. Do we choose to do something beneficial or something destructive? Do we take the essence of this precious life or waste it? Do we benefit others (and therefore ourselves) or do we follow self-interest and ensure suffering for ourselves and others? In every second we have the freedom to choose between enlightenment or hell, even in the smallest, most insignificant action. Profit or loss — real profit or loss — the choice is completely in our hands.

Choosing to work solely for others is something that pleases all the buddhas and bodhisattvas. Each sentient being is cherished by the buddhas and bodhisattvas like a mother cherishes her only child. Just as a loving mother wishes only what is best for her child, and she is delighted when they are praised and upset when they are criticized, the buddhas and bodhisattvas feel this for all sentient beings. They are pleased when sentient beings receive happiness and displeased when they receive harm. That does not mean they become angry. When they see sentient beings being harmed, they are displeased but they still have great compassion, both for the harmer and the harmed.

We can make extensive offerings to the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the richest things but at the same time be heedless of harming others. We can even sacrifice animals as offerings to them, as happens in some religions. How can that ever please the buddhas and bodhisattvas? As Shantideva said, we please the buddhas and bodhisattvas when we please sentient beings and we displease the buddhas and bodhisattvas when we harm them.

What is the best offering to the buddhas and bodhisattvas? What pleases them the most? Material possessions mean nothing to them. They are pleased when we offer them things because of the merit we create, not because of the offering itself. What most pleases them is when we strive to become a better person, when we practice the Dharma as well as we are able, working toward attaining realizations and attaining enlightenment. Our real offering is being of benefit to sentient beings, helping them free themselves from suffering and attain all the happinesses — temporal happiness, the happiness of future lives — and, of course, liberation and enlightenment, the very best offering we can make. As Shantideva said in chapter 1 of A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life,

By simply desiring to benefit others one goes beyond the merit

that can be derived from worshipping the awakened ones;

how much more will arise then

from the actual effort to bring all happiness to all living beings?51

Just the wish to benefit others creates far more merit than making extensive offerings to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas, so there is no need to mention actually working toward others’ welfare. If we hold this attitude throughout the day, then whatever we do will bring us the greatest joy. We will be working for sentient beings twenty-four hours a day no matter what we do, and nothing pleases the buddhas and bodhisattvas more.

Serving Others Is Serving the Buddhas

124Therefore, since I have caused pain to other human beings,

I have brought sorrow to all the compassionate ones.

Therefore, I confess today my wrongdoing.

May the sages forgive me for having caused them so much distress.

125In order to gratify the tathagatas,52

today I turn my whole being into the slave of the world.

May the flood of humanity place their feet on my head.

May they strike me, that the world protectors may be satisfied.

126The compassionate ones have made the whole world their own body,

there is no doubt about this.

Then, is it not the protectors themselves who appear

under the guise of living beings? How could I despise them?

127Only in this way will I serve the tathagatas,

only in this way will I reach my aim,

only thus will I quell the suffering of the world;

therefore, let this be my vow.

With a Mahayana motivation, every action we do leads us to the precious mind of bodhichitta, the mind that wishes to attain enlightenment in order to benefit all sentient beings. This is the mind that leads us away from the damaging, dangerous misconception that we are the most important person and that others are here to serve us. We are here to serve others. Selfishness is misery; happiness begins when we start cherishing others.

Self-cherishing is the selfish mind that separates us from everybody else and pits us against them. It destroys any compassion we might have, and, of course, it blocks any chance of developing bodhichitta. Any person we meet is judged by our self-cherishing. If they are richer, more powerful, or better educated than we are, we are jealous and despise them. If they are poorer, less powerful, or less educated than we are, we are proud and arrogant and we despise them. If they are the same as we are, we feel intensely competitive toward them and we despise them.

This is how we have been leading our life — blindly following attachment, using others for our own ends, mistakenly thinking that this is the way to happiness. How can we possibly attain enlightenment in order to free every sentient being when we ourselves have not gone beyond being trapped in suffering? We can only truly help others and ourselves when we develop strong aversion for the whole of samsara, seeing it like a prison that we need to break out of as soon as we can. We need to see it like a raging fire we are caught in the middle of. Just as being consumed in the flames holds not the slightest appeal for us, we should feel no attraction for whatever samsara has to offer us. We need to feel as if we have woken in the middle of a nest of cobras, where one false move will make them strike. That is the degree of awareness we need when dealing with any situation in samsara. That’s how terrifying samsara is.

When we accept that this has been how we have been living our life for so long, we must determine to change our attitude completely. We must train to cherish others more than ourselves. This is what really pleases the buddhas and bodhisattvas.

The buddhas and bodhisattva are all around — they manifest in whatever form benefits sentient beings — but we cannot see them as such because we are clouded by delusions. They can manifest as a king, a judge, a minister, a monk such as His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a butcher, a wine seller, or even a prostitute. They can manifest as a hungry ghost, a hell being, or even an animal.

Therefore we must be so careful. If we could easily see who has great realizations and who does not, we could pick and choose who to show respect to. But the great beings can manifest in any form. If we get angry with somebody who has annoyed us, how do we know we are not getting angry at a bodhisattva manifesting in that form to show us something? Nothing in the external appearance — clothes, voice, attitude — tells us for sure that this is not a highly realized being. Our mind is just too obscured to know such things. How others appear to us is generally a mirror to the state of our own mind. Their positive and negative qualities are no more than a projection of our own qualities.

We simply don’t know who is a bodhisattva, but we do know that showing anger to a bodhisattva even for a second is incredibly heavy negative karma, resulting in unbelievable suffering in the lower realms. In that case, by far the wisest thing to do is to presume every sentient being we encounter is a bodhisattva and never show disrespect to anybody. Of course, we should never create negative karma in connection with any other being, realized or not. But we are habituated to seeing some as annoying or harmful, and negative emotions can too easily arise, so this is a skillful way of protecting our mind.

We can’t see countless buddhas only because our mind is still clouded with delusions such as pride. When we can destroy those delusions, we will be like Kadampa Geshe Chayulwa,53 who served his guru, Geshe Chen Ngawa, with complete devotion. One morning, after he had finished cleaning his guru’s room and was carrying out all the dirt in the lap of his robes to throw it out, right there on the steps he suddenly saw numberless buddhas, an indication that he had reached the level of the great path of merit called the concentration of continual Dharma. That was the result of having purified his negative karma and obscurations through offering service with a pure mind of guru devotion.

At first, as our view becomes purer, our understanding of sentient beings deepens and our natural tendency to partiality and arrogance reduces. Well before we can see even one being as a buddha, there will be no place left for pride. But even at the level we are now, we can understand how we are so deluded that we just don’t know who is enlightened and who isn’t, and so the person we are currently feeling superior to may well be a buddha.

We can use Geshe Langri Tangpa’s Eight Verses on Mind Training, the most famous thought-transformation text, as our guide. It says,

Whenever I interact with others,

I will view myself as inferior to all;

And I will train myself

To hold others superior from the depths of my heart.54

Seeing how precious all sentient beings are, we naturally want to benefit them in whatever way we can. As I have said, the best way is to show them the Dharma — to help them overcome their delusions and become enlightened. We do this by practicing the Dharma as well as we can. The great yogi Milarepa said that although he had nothing material to offer his guru, he could offer his attainment and that was the best offering. Controlling our negative emotions, coming to understand our mind through meditation, not harming and learning to help others, this best helps others and it is the best offering we can make to the buddhas and bodhisattvas.

The essence of the bodhichitta attitude — to solely care for others more than we care for ourselves — is a total thought transformation, from seeing others are there for our benefit to becoming a willing servant for all others.

All Happiness Comes from Pleasing Sentient Beings

128 By himself a single member of the royal guard

can harass a large crowd;

the crowd will not be able to resist him;

they will suffer patiently at his hands;

129 because he is not alone,

his power is that of the king’s army.

In the same way do not despise

those who offend you because they might seem weak,

130for they hold the power of both the guardians of hell

and the compassionate ones.

Therefore, try to please all sentient beings,

as a servant a wrathful king.

131Could an angry king

ever cause pains

like those experienced in hell

by one who brings grief to sentient beings?

132Could a satisfied king

grant a favor

equal to the condition of buddhahood one would enjoy

by bringing happiness to sentient beings?

133Leaving aside this future condition of buddhahood,

made possible by service to sentient beings,

don’t you see that the patient person

will attain even here,

134while still in the cycle of transmigration,

good fortune, fame, security, beauty,

health, joy, a long life,

and the splendid bliss of a world conqueror?

When people don’t know the Dharma, because they see all problems as coming from the outside, they blame others. And because they see all happiness as coming from outside, they try to get happiness through material possessions. They can’t see that attaining happiness is impossible unless the causes have been created in the past.

As Shantideva said, no matter how angry a king or ruler might be, no matter what they do to us, even having us executed, they don’t have the power to send us to the lower realms. An atomic bomb can explode, but it cannot send us to the lower realms. A deadly poison can kill us, but it cannot send us to the lower realms. Only our negative, self-cherishing mind can do that.

Similarly, no matter how pleased a king or ruler might be, even though they can offer us their entire kingdom as a reward, they can never offer us enlightenment. That can only happen when we relinquish the self-cherishing mind completely and develop the mind that cherishes others completely and so attain bodhichitta.

That is why self-cherishing is so harmful. It is much more dangerous than the worst dictator, than all the atomic bombs, than the deadliest poison. There are many causes of death, but death is just the separation of our mind from our body. Where we are reborn is entirely up to us.

Dying with a mind that cherishes others ensures a good rebirth, either in a pure land or as a human being with all the conditions to continue our spiritual development. Dying with self-cherishing ensures a miserable rebirth. Therefore, just as we would cast aside a deadly poison if we found it, we must cast aside the self-cherishing mind and replace it with a mind that cherishes only others.

For that reason, we must dedicate our life to helping others. It is said there are two main reasons why we must do this. The first is because sentient beings are suffering so much and we are capable of helping them. The second is that all our happiness comes from them.

For a bodhisattva, all beings are worthy of compassion because all are suffering. Bodhichitta does not discriminate between the rich or the poor, between the wise or the foolish. Of this, Khunu Lama Rinpoche said,

The precious gem of bodhichitta

does not discriminate between rich or poor,

does not differentiate between wise or foolish;

it benefits equally the high and low.55

No matter how wise some beings seem or how stupid others seem, all are the same in wishing to be free from all suffering, and the same in being unable to avoid it because of fundamental ignorance. The bodhisattva sees this and so makes no discrimination, but instead seeks the well-being of all equally, treating each the way a loving mother tends to her only beloved child.

We use this example because there is no other relationship that can compare to that of a mother and her child. If her child is ill, maybe suffering from something such as leprosy or dysentery, something that would repulse others, the mother feels no repulsion, only great love and compassion. She will do whatever is necessary to help her child. Day and night, she constantly thinks only of her child’s welfare. The bodhisattva is the same. With bodhichitta, we feel exactly like that toward all sentient beings.

Even if all sentient beings were to rise up and attack us with hatred, that would not change how we feel about them. With bodhichitta, we don’t have one single enemy because we always have love for all beings, regardless of the external conditions. No matter what they do, our one concern is to bring them happiness, as if they are our only beloved child. This is what pleases the buddhas and bodhisattvas the most.

We are so fortunate that we have the opportunity to develop this most amazing mind. We have met the Mahayana teachings on bodhichitta and we have the time and the wish to study them and to meditate on them. How incredible that is! And how rare that is.

It is worth thinking of how few people, let alone animals and other sentient beings, have this opportunity. When we think about the billions of people on this planet, how many have the chance that we have to develop on the path? We could have been born as a peasant or a migrant worker; we could have been born into a refugee family or in a war zone. There as so many terrible lives we could have had that would mean nothing but poverty, hardship, and misery, where there would be no freedom at all to do anything, where it would be just the most basic survival. The vast majority of beings have no choice; they must kill, steal, lie, or do any of the other nonvirtuous actions just to survive. A beggar has no choice, a soldier has no choice. Even a general in an army must order others to kill, creating terrible negative karma every day.

We have managed to avoid all these types of existence. At this moment, we are living in a situation where we can avoid creating negative karma. But we have been even more fortunate than that. There are comparatively few people able to follow any spiritual path. And of those who do, how many have met the Buddhadharma, and how many of those have met the Mahayana? We can see that this is the one route not just to attain total freedom from suffering but to gain full enlightenment.

To do that, the perfection of patience is vital. Then, whenever we practice patience rather than give in to anger, we make incredible profit. We save ourselves from so much suffering because we don’t create its cause. And by being patient we accrue so many benefits.

Rather than having an ugly body, we will have a beautiful body. We can see this even in this life. When somebody who might normally be considered beautiful gets angry, their appearance totally changes; their face becomes twisted and ugly. A patient person, on the other hand, even if they are not considered beautiful by others, has a very gentle face, one that pleases others and makes them happy. And in future lives, they will be very beautiful because of their patience.

The angry person, in future lives, will be born in a foul, violent environment and be without helpers, whereas for the patient person it will be the opposite. The environment they will be reborn into will be very beautiful and peaceful, and they will always be surrounded by people wanting to help them.

When we practice patience, we will have all these qualities, and all the conditions needed to develop on the path: a conducive environment, a long life, the respect of others, and many more. The ultimate result of patience is to have the very best beauty, the beauty of a buddha’s holy body.