10. GENERATING THE BODHISATTVA SPIRIT
AS THE EXALTED master Arya Nagarjuna said, “For those seeking full omniscience, the bodhimind is the wish-fulfilling gem. It should be as stable as Mount Meru, should warm the ten directions with compassion, and should be united with the wisdom which does not grasp at duality.”
The first quality we need to generate in order to enter the Mahayana is the bodhimind. And as the bodhimind is a higher form of love and compassion, we must generate these qualities as a prerequisite. Once we have generated the bodhimind, our meditations upon the ultimate level of truth shall contribute to our attainment of omniscient buddhahood rather than the lesser attainment of an arhant’s nirvana. This latter is achieved by practicing the three higher trainings without the sublimating influence of the bodhimind. Knowing that we are of little benefit to sentient beings for as long as we remain under the powers of delusion, we enter into meditation upon emptiness not solely in order to remove our own causes of suffering for our own sakes, but also in order to attain enlightenment in order to be of greatest benefit to others. Therefore Nagarjuna made the prayer, “Whoever does not have the bodhimind, may they generate it. And whoever has it, may they increase it.”
We have been born as human beings and have the ability to attain tremendously exalted states of spiritual being. It has probably been many lifetimes since we have had such an auspicious conjunction of conditions favorable to progress along the path to higher being, liberation, and enlightenment. Even if we cannot get involved in intensive practice of meditation, at least we should try to accumulate a few positive karmic instincts for further development along the Great Way by occasionally reading the scriptures and trying to incorporate teachings into our daily activities.
At the moment the world’s spiritual traditions have greatly degenerated. It is very important in such times that the practitioners themselves make especially strong efforts to gain realization. To permit the lineages of transmission to disappear is to allow the world to plunge into darkness. The great Vasubandhu wrote, “Buddha, who is like the eye of the world, is no longer to be seen. His great successors, who realized the most profound teachings, also have passed away. Who equals them?” It might be asked, who is there today to equal the master Vasubandhu? Who practices as well as did Milarepa? Such people are rare. We should remember that everything but Dharma is useless at death, and instead of wasting our lives on meaningless activities, we should blend our mindstreams with the teachings and with practice. Doing so benefits us as individuals and benefits the world by strengthening its spiritual basis.
Each of us has to be able to feel the pride that we ourselves can reach perfection, we ourselves can attain enlightenment. When even one person indulges in spiritual practice, it gives encouragement to the guardian spirits of the land and to the celestial deities who have sworn to uphold goodness. These forces then have the ability to release waves of beneficial effects upon humanity. Thus our practice has many direct and indirect benefits. On the other hand, when the people just disgrace and deride the masters and live in ways contradicting natural law, the white protective forces lose their potency and the sinister forces of darkness revive and cause great havoc. Each of us has to do our best on a personal level. There is a saying, “The ways of humans and gods should be in harmony.” If we practice the teachings and live the ways of Dharma, all the natural forces of goodness will be behind us. Yet when we look at human beings, we can see how few are engaged in serious spiritual training, and if we look at those in training we can see how few are training effectively. We ourselves as humans have a body and mind capable of elevating our spiritual status from its present stage into the most exalted of the supreme. Why miss the opportunity? Once death takes it away, it will probably not come again for thousands or even millions of lifetimes.
THE THIRD DALAI LAMA
Although by means of the higher trainings in ethical discipline, concentration, and wisdom, one can attain nirvana, or liberation from cyclic existence, this attainment in itself is not sufficient. Of course, for one who has gained nirvana there is never again the need to wander in samsara, yet because only a part of one’s faults have been overcome [obscurations to omniscience have not] and only a fraction of perfection has been attained [omnipotence and omniscience have not], one has not really fulfilled oneself from one’s own point of view. Also, because one is neither omniscient nor omnipotent, one has not fulfilled oneself from others’ point of view. So there is a need to look to the goal of complete buddhahood, which is ultimate fulfillment from both one’s own and others’ point of view. Moreover, one should not think to gain buddhahood merely for one’s own benefit. One should want it purely in order to be able to more efficiently and deeply benefit all sentient beings. Just as you have fallen into the ocean of samsaric misery, so have all others, and they, like you, know only frustration and misery. There is not one of them who previously has not been your father and mother again and again, and who has not shown you unimaginable kindness. It is only justice that if you are to gain liberation and omniscience they too should be freed from anguish. It is primarily to benefit them that you yourself must reach the state of peerless, non-abiding nirvana, and for this you must generate the supreme bodhimind, the enlightened attitude.
As practitioners of initial and medium perspectives we turned the mind away from the causes of lower evolution and toward the direction of individual liberation from samsara and its miseries, but is this enough? The answer is to the negative. Those who dwell in nirvana have severed the obscuring influence of the delusions and thus abide in freedom from samsaric existence, but they have not severed the obscurations to omniscience. Consequently, although they are able to remain absorbed in meditation upon the ultimate truth and thus to remain free from suffering, they are not able to simultaneously perceive the infinite diversity of the universe. As a result, their ability to benefit the world is limited. Moreover, in that they still have subtle obscurations, even their own purposes have not been utterly fulfilled. Therefore, we should elevate our goal to that of omniscient buddhahood, the cause of which is the cultivation of the bodhimind.
How did we generate the aspiration to transcend the lower states of being and attain nirvana, or liberation from all samsaric misery? Firstly, by contemplating the sufferings of the lower realms and the causes of evolving into these states and, secondly, by contemplating the sufferings that pervade all samsaric existence, together with the causes of liberation. However, we did this principally in reference to our own stream of being. In order to generate the Mahayana mind, however, one changes the gravitational basis of the meditations and, instead of contemplating the ways in which we ourselves do and can suffer, we consider the plight of the world of sentient beings who live around us. We meditate upon the same sufferings of the lower and higher realms of samsara as previously, but here we refer them not to ourselves but to others—our mother, father, family, friends, etc.—until eventually we include all living beings.
All beings suffer in the same way as we do, and some are even more deeply immersed in sorrow. Yet all of these beings wish to experience only happiness and to avoid all suffering, frustration, and pain. They wish lasting happiness but do not know how to cultivate its causes, and they wish to avoid misery but automatically collect only causes of further misery. As Shantideva said, “Although seeking happiness, they destroy their own causes of happiness as they would an enemy. And although seeking to avoid misery, they treat its causes as they would a close friend.”
Were the countless sentient beings unrelated to us, or were they not to mind their sufferings, perhaps there would be no need for us to bother with their welfare. In reality, however, all are related to us and not one of them wishes to suffer. Over the billions of lifetimes that we have experienced since beginningless time, we have known all the living beings again and again. Sometimes they have been parents to us, sometimes friends or mates, sometimes enemies. Without exception, each of them has been even a mother to us again and again, performing all the kindnesses of a mother. How can we be indifferent to them? Wishing them to have only happiness and its causes and to be free of suffering and its causes, we ourselves should generate a sense of responsibility for their well-being. Finally, as only an omniscient Enlightened One is effectively able to benefit beings in deep, lasting, and ultimate ways, we must quickly attain enlightenment. This is the wishing bodhimind, the inner basis of Mahayana practice. One of the principal methods of generating this mind is the technique called “the seven-point oral tradition of cause and effect.”
THE THIRD DALAI LAMA
The best method to generate the bodhimind is the oral tradition known as the “the seven-point oral tradition of cause and effect.” I will explain this first briefly and then in detail.
A Brief Explanation
Of the seven points, six are causes and one the effect. The first cause is the awareness that all sentient beings have been one’s mother. From this arises the second cause—mindfulness of the all-embracing, eternal kindness of each and every one of them. This gives birth to the third cause—the wish to repay their kindness. This wish transforms into the beautiful mind engendering the fourth cause—love—and then the fifth cause—compassion. Love and compassion are the forces from which springs the sixth cause—the extraordinary attitude characterized by a sense of universal responsibility, the cause which eventually ripens as the one effect, bodhimind. This is the seven-spoked wheel that rolls on to the omniscient state of perfect enlightenment.
This seven-point oral tradition of cause and effect is one of the most effective methods for generating the bodhimind, but in order to utilize it we must first develop the smooth mind of equanimity. Our present attitudes toward others are rough and inconsistent. We regard some with affection and wish them happiness; others with indifference to their happiness and sufferings; and others we dislike and hope that they come to sorrow. This discriminating mind cannot meditate effectively on love, compassion, etc., without casting these into a discriminating perspective. Any sense of the bodhimind that arises will be unbalanced and easily disturbed. Therefore as a preliminary to using the method of the seven-point oral tradition of cause and effect we must train the mind in the meditations that develop equanimity.
THE THIRD DALAI LAMA
As a preliminary to all seven of these meditations, however, one must make the mind level by means of meditation upon equanimity for all sentient beings. If the mind sees some beings as dear, some as alien, and some as neutral, it is not sufficiently mature to be able to meditate upon all beings as having been one’s own mother. If the mind has no equanimity, any love or compassion generated will be biased and unbalanced. Therefore one must first practice equanimity meditation.
Begin this by visualizing various “neutral” people—those who have neither harmed nor helped you in this life. From their side, each of them wants only happiness and does not want suffering. From your side, each one of them is like a member of your family and has been your father and mother in many previous lives. Think, “In some lives I have held them dear and have helped them, whereas in others I have held them as alien and have harmed them. This is hardly correct. I should meditate now in order to generate an attitude of equanimity for them all.”
Once you have meditated like this upon neutral people, then consider those who have helped you in this life and whom you therefore hold as dear and those who have harmed you in this life and whom you consequently hold as alien. Develop equanimity toward them both. Finally, generate equanimity toward all sentient beings of the six realms.
Why do we like some beings, dislike others, and feel indifferent toward even others? Because of actions done or not done in this life. We like the beings who have helped and supported us, dislike those who have harmed us or who threaten our existence in any way, and feel indifferent to anyone unrelated to us, who has done nothing either pleasant nor unpleasant to us.
If we meditate on the people whom we dislike, the superficial nature of our reasons for disliking them become very obvious. Some merely smiled at us strangely, frowned at us, or said something against us at one time. Others happen to play an unfortunate role in our lives. On the other hand, our reasons for liking the people whom we choose as friends are usually just as silly. Most people change their emotions toward others as quickly as the weather changes. Such a mind is a cause of laughter, even by worldly conventions. How much more inappropriate is it to the spiritual path?
It would be reasonable to call one person a friend, another an enemy, and a third a stranger if they had held this status throughout the billions of lives we have experienced since beginningless time. But this is not the case. All beings have been friend, relative, and even parent to us again and again. Each time they have showered us with a rainfall of kindness, protecting us from harm, and providing us with much happiness. This is in the past. As for the future, until we attain liberation or enlightenment we shall continue to spin on the wheel of life with them, meeting with them again and again in relationships of friend, relative, and so forth.
Similarly, the people whom we like and love in this life have not always been our friends. In many previous lives they have killed us, stolen from us, and harmed us in many ways. As for the future, until we attain enlightenment we will continue to meet with them in life upon life, each time our relationships with them dramatically changed. There is nobody who has always played the role of ally in our lives and nobody who has always played the role of antagonist. Nor is there anyone who has always been a stranger. As the wheel of karma rolls on, the beings fulfilling these functions constantly change positions with one another.
When we meditate on these facts and apply the experiences of our meditations in our daily exchanges with people, the smooth mind that looks on all beings with equanimity is quickly generated. This lays the foundation for the actual practice of the seven-point cause and effect meditation technique.
THE THIRD DALAI LAMA
A More Detailed Explanation
The first cause: developing awareness that all beings have been one’s mother. Because there is no findable beginning to sentient life and cyclic existence, one must have had an infinite number of previous lives, and all other beings must share this same situation. Thus it follows that there is no place in which we can say we have not taken birth and there is no sentient being we can say has not been our parent. In fact, each and every sentient being has been our parent countless times. If we search throughout the endless round of birth, death, and rebirth, a being who has not been our mother will not be found. All sentient beings have shown kindness toward us equal to the kindness of our mother of this life. Consequently they should be seen as being only kind.
The kindness of the mother is chosen as the example of the intensity of kindness that all beings have shown us, because generally in samsara the mother’s concern is something very strong and obvious. We can see the kindness of a mother not only in humans but in animals, birds, and so forth. A mother dog will starve herself to feed her pups and will die to protect them. In the same way, even if our mother were strange to us in some ways, she still would have instinctively and unconsciously shown us great kindness. All beings have loved us in this very same way, sacrificing their food for us and even dying to protect us because their love for us was so strong. The people who are friends, enemies, and strangers to us in this life showed us the great kindness of a mother in countless previous lives.
Actually, there is no imperative that mother love be the model used here if doing so should cause a problem. If we have serious problems in our relationship with our mother, or if we were orphans and an aunt or uncle brought us up, we could just as easily take whomsoever we feel has been most kind to us and use him or her as an alternative model in this step in the meditation. We then contemplate how all sentient beings have been born into this same relationship with us in countless previous lives and have shown us these same kindnesses. We have to learn to see all sentient beings in that person’s image.
As a result of this meditation one gains a feeling of spontaneous familiarity with all other sentient beings, a recognition that they are somehow very close to us and very precious.
THE THIRD DALAI LAMA
The second cause: mindfulness of the kindness of the infinite sentient beings. How has the mother of this life shown you kindness? When you were in the womb, she thought only about how to protect and tend you. After you were born, she took you and wrapped you in soft garments, held you in her arms, gazed on you with eyes of love, smiled on you affectionately, out of mercy gave you milk from her breasts, and held you to her flesh to keep you warm. Then for year upon year she prepared your food for you and cleaned the mucus and excrement from your body. Even if she was mortally ill and you contracted merely a minor disease, she would think solely about you. She shielded and protected you from every difficulty, gave you whatever she could to help you accomplish your wishes, and anything you could not do by yourself she did for you. In fact, she protected your life and person in every possible manner. You should in this way repeatedly contemplate how your mother has greatly helped you and has been extremely kind to you.
Then simultaneously visualize all three categories of people: those close to you, such as your family and friends of this life; neutral people with whom you have had no real contact; and alien people, or those who have harmed you in this life. Consider how each of them has been your mother uncountable times in the past. Uncountable times have they given you even a human rebirth, protecting you as much as has the mother of this life, showing you immeasurable kindness, and helping you limitlessly again and again.
The kindness of a mother is boundless and overwhelming. She wants everything for her children. Could she give enlightenment to them, she would rush to do so. If we watch how mother birds sacrifice themselves to protect their children, how in order to feed their offspring they even starve themselves until their feathers fall out and the flesh falls away from their body, we can appreciate the tremendous kindness all sentient beings have shown us when they were reborn as our mothers in countless previous lives.
Whenever anyone harms us we should think to ourselves, “In many past incarnations this being was my mother. As my mother she fed me, cleaned my body, and protected me from every harm. I slept in her lap and drank milk from her breasts. At that time this person only benefited me and shared all possessions with me. The harm this person is now bringing to me is due only to the forces of negative karma and delusion.”
THE THIRD DALAI LAMA
The third cause: the wish to repay them. However, these mother sentient beings who have nurtured us with kindness so many times are disturbed by demons of mental distortion and delusion. Their minds are uncontrolled and they are as though insane. Their wisdom-eye is made blind with the smoke of ignorance, and they have no way to see the paths leading to high rebirth, personal liberation, or omniscience. Most of them, not having a spiritual master who can lead them to the city of freedom, are like blind beggars with no guide. Every day they further divorce themselves from happiness because of unskillful karmic actions of body, speech, and mind. Like members in a drunken procession staggering toward a cliff, they are stumbling over the precipice of evil into the sufferings of cyclic existence and the lower realms. Think, “If I do not do something for these pathetic, feeble beings, who will? If responsibility for them does not fall upon my shoulders, upon whose will it fall? Were I to ignore these kind beings and work only for my personal liberation from samsara, what lack of conscience and consideration!
“Furthermore, were they to attain the various pleasurable states of samsara, such as the states of Brahma, Indra, or the like, their peace would not be eternal. I should from now on think less of myself and more of mitigating the samsaric suffering of living beings as vast as space, and by every possible means I should work for enlightenment so as to be able to place them in the joy of peerless liberation.”
Just as a mother has responsibility toward her child, the child has responsibility toward the mother. Since all sentient beings have been our mother countless times, our sense of responsibility toward each of them should be equal. What is the difference between a debt from last week and one from last year? We should dwell in this sense of responsibility toward others. When a mother falls into difficulty, who should be more concerned for her than her own child?
THE THIRD DALAI LAMA
Causes four and five: love and compassion. Think, “Why should these mother beings, bereft of happiness, not have happiness? May they be happy. May I in every way contribute to their happiness. Also, why should the mother beings who are aching with misery not be separated from misery? May they be separated from it. May I contribute to their being separated from it.”
How can we repay the kindness of sentient beings? Through showing them immaculate love and compassion.
Immaculate love is the thought, “May they have happiness and its causes.” Compassion is the thought, “May they be free of suffering and its causes.” In that to obtain happiness and to avoid suffering are the two most primordial, inborn instincts of all that lives, love and compassion are the supreme gifts.
What does it mean to give happiness? What does it mean to remove suffering? Of course we can help materially in small ways, but compared to the depth of the suffering in which the beings of samsara are immersed, this will provide only short and superficial benefits. All beings have had every happiness, pleasure, and power that exists in samsara, for their previous lives are countless; yet these have proved to be more deceptive than beneficial to them. Therefore the thought adds, “…and the causes of happiness.” Ultimately speaking, in order for the beings to have lasting happiness they require its causes. They must be inspired in goodness and wisdom. Similarly, the “causes of suffering” reflects the thought not only must beings be freed from the specific states of suffering in which they presently struggle, but in order to gain lasting freedom from suffering they must be inspired to purify their mindstreams of negative karmic instincts and to counteract the force of delusion by cultivating profound wisdom.
In his Three Principal Practices of the Path, the great Tsongkhapa wrote, “Sentient beings are swept downstream by the violent rivers of the four sufferings and are tightly chained by the powerful bonds of compulsive karmic activity. Trapped in the iron mesh of ego-grasping, they are lost in the darkness of confusion. Thus they repeatedly live and die, wandering endlessly throughout cyclic existence with the three terrible sufferings as their constant companions. Yet they all want only to attain happiness and to avoid suffering.”
The problem is one of negative karma and delusion. The only way they can gain lasting happiness and freedom from suffering is by overcoming these two negative forces within themselves and by generating their opposites. Until they do so, suffering and more suffering will remain the nature of their future.
THE THIRD DALAI LAMA
Cause six: the extraordinary attitude, and the one effect, the bodhimind. Think, “However, do I have the power to accomplish these two wishes? Not to mention all sentient beings, I don’t have power to free even one from suffering nor place even one in transcendental happiness. For that very reason I made the resolve to attain perfect buddhahood, and if I now give up that resolve surely I will fall into the lower realms. Yet I can do nothing to free beings from suffering and place them in peerless happiness until I have myself attained full buddhahood. I should immediately start working in every conceivable way to realize the state of complete, perfect enlightenment, samyaksambodhi, taking as the basis the thought to be able to free sentient beings from even the deepest suffering and bring them to ultimate joy.”
If the child does not take responsibility for the mother in times of need, who will do so? Thus we meditate that we ourselves should generate a personal sense of universal responsibility for the welfare of others, each of whom has been our mother many times over.
However, do we have the wisdom, skill, and power to benefit them? Not being free from samsaric processes ourselves, we can hardly speak of doing anything for anyone else on anything but mundane levels. Who is able to benefit others most effectively in ultimate ways? Only someone with omniscient enlightenment, with full powers of compassion, wisdom, and ability. Such a being in communicating with others instinctively perceives their entire karmic background, spiritual propensities, and so forth, and as a result, a single word from that being is more useful than a thousand words of discourse from an ordinary person. A teacher must speak from his or her own experience. There is little benefit in merely parroting Buddha and the Indian masters. Just as to give someone directions to a distant place that one has never visited can easily lead to confusion and error, so in order to be effective as an unmistaken guide one must first gain realization oneself. Without spiritual attainment, there is really very little we can do for ourselves, let alone for anyone else.
Although the aim of the bodhimind is to attain enlightenment in order to be able to benefit others, this does not necessarily mean acting as a teacher in the formal sense of the word. After attaining enlightenment, one can manifest in many ways to benefit sentient beings, just as the bodhisattva Maitreya appeared in the form of a worm-ridden dog to Asanga in order to cause his compassion to rise and overflow. Similarly, Tilopa appeared to Naropa as a half-mad beggar eating live fish. The scriptures contain a wealth of accounts of beings who have manifested their enlightenment in totally mundane ways in order to benefit beings. Sometimes they appear as someone who says a few words to us that solve a difficulty confronting our lives, sometimes as a book when we are in need of information, and even as a bridge for someone stranded in distress. Such is the wondrous power of the omniscient state.
Understanding that we are striving for enlightenment in order to benefit all living beings, a subtle change in our attitude toward them is immediately effected. Our compassion takes on an added depth and richness, and our meditation upon emptiness takes a new dimension. This is the first of the twenty-two stages of development that the bodhimind undergoes as it gradually evolves into the omniscient mind of perfect enlightenment.
The bodhimind experienced by the ordinary person is something of a negative bodhimind. We reason to ourselves, “In order to gain full omniscience I require the bodhimind, and as the basis of the bodhimind is great compassion and the cherishing of others, I must also cultivate that.” The innate self-grasping nature of the mind is used as a force in order to overcome self-grasping and to replace it with love and compassion for others. In the beginning, however, it is really practiced more for the benefit of oneself than for others. Thus it is the bodhimind in name only; although by persistence in practice, this negativity is eliminated because of the nature of the technique.
Once we have developed some experience in meditation upon the bodhimind, it is very useful to request a master to convey the ceremony of the aspirational bodhimind pledge. Sealing our experience in the presence of a master by making a pledge to always hold the altruistic aspiration for the highest enlightenment as most precious, we make its foundations solid. Then, having taken the pledge of the aspirational bodhimind, we should practice the four associated trainings and should avoid the four black dharmas.
THE THIRD DALAI LAMA
However, merely meditating upon the bodhimind is not enough. One should also maintain the following four trainings:
(i) The training of recollecting the beneficial effects of the bodhimind. This aims at generating enthusiasm for developing the aspirational aspect of the bodhimind and ensures that the resolve one has taken does not degenerate in this life.
(ii) The training of giving rise to thoughts of the bodhimind six times a day. This aims at increasing the practice aspect of the bodhimind, or the actual bodhimind.
(iii) The training of not mentally abandoning any of the beings for whom one has taken the vow of the bodhimind.
(iv) The training of increasing one’s inner spiritual force.
To Go into These in Greater Detail
(i) The training of recollecting the beneficial effects of the bodhimind means that one should maintain a constant awareness of the following teaching [condensed] from Shantideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life.
The moment one develops the thought of enlightenment, the bodhimind, one becomes an object of worship for humans and gods alike. By means of fundamental nature one surpasses the brilliance of the shravaka arhants and pratyekabuddhas, or the practitioners of the Hinayana. One passes beyond the reach of diseases and evil spirits. The tantric accomplishments—the powers to pacify, increase, overpower, annihilate, and so forth—are attained without difficulty. One will no longer be born into any of the three miserable realms—hell, ghost, or animal. Even should one not attain enlightenment in this lifetime but be reborn in samsara, one will quickly gain freedom. And the karmic seeds of even the gravest of one’s past negative karmic actions will be instantly crushed.
Were the beneficial effects of developing the bodhimind to take form, the sky could not contain them. Think, then, not to degenerate what bodhimind you have already developed, and to increase it evermore.
(ii) Giving up the enlightened attitude toward even a stranger has a heavier negative karmic consequence than that created by a monk who breaks one of his four root vows—not to kill, steal, feign spiritual qualities, or engage in sexual activity. Do not give up the bodhimind until buddhahood has been actualized. Until then, recite the following verses three times each day and three times each night:
To Buddha, Dharma, and the Supreme
Community
Until bodhi I turn for refuge.
By the power of my practicing the six perfections,
May buddhahood be attained for the sake of all.
(iii) We are developing the enlightened attitude in order to be able to benefit all sentient beings. Therefore, no matter how any of them relates to us, we should from our own side never abandon relating to them on the basis of the bodhimind.
(iv) If one develops a spark of the thought of enlightenment even once, one should try to prevent it from degenerating. Also, try to further it by amassing meritorious energy through such techniques as contemplating the qualities of the Three Jewels, making offerings, meditating, and so forth.
The cause of not losing the power of the bodhimind in future lives arises from the practice of abandoning the four black dharmas and relying upon the four white dharmas.
The Four Black Dharmas Are
(i) Lying to or deceiving one’s abbot, teacher, or any worthy being. Neither lie to them nor deceive them.
The opponent force to this black dharma is not to speak falsely to any sentient being whatsoever, not in jest or to save your life.
(ii) Causing someone who has done something good to regret that deed.
The opponent force to this black dharma is to direct anyone to whom one may give spiritual instruction toward the Great rather than the Small Way.
(iii) Speaking harshly and with anger to someone who has developed the Mahayana enlightened attitude.
The opponent force to this black dharma is to regard all Mahayana practitioners as one’s teachers and, when the occasion presents itself, to praise their good qualities. Also train yourself to see all living beings as pure and noble.
(iv) Being hypocritical and false with sentient beings. Avoid this and be constantly sincere with everyone.
This aspirational bodhimind is like the trunk of a tree. Able to support the branches and leaves, which are the practices of actual bodhimind, or the bodhimind that engages in the six perfections, the four ways of amassing trainings, and so forth, it is the very foundation of the path to enlightenment. The presence of the aspirational bodhimind qualifies us as Mahayanists, and to lose it is to fall from the Great Way. Whether or not one is a Mahayanist is determined solely by one’s possession or lack of the wishing bodhimind.
This mind is like a magical elixir able to transform iron into gold, for it directs all activities of those who possess it into causes of golden omniscience. It is a mind from which can be drawn forth every virtue, for all virtues on touching it become multiplied many times over. Thus one should make every effort to generate, protect, and increase it. It is useful to read scriptures describing the nature and development of this mind, such as Nagarjuna’s Precious Garland and Shantideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. One of my own teachers, the late Kunnu Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen, also wrote an interesting little text on the subject, Treatise on the Bodhimindi, but I don’t believe this has been translated into English yet. These types of scriptures are both useful and inspiring.
THE THIRD DALAI LAMA
To quote Jey Rinpoche,
Development of the bodhimind,
The thought of enlightenment,
Is the central pillar of Mahayana practice,
The foundation of the bodhisattva activities,
An elixir producing the gold of merit and
wisdom,
A mine holding the infinite varieties of goodness.
Knowing this, courageous followers of the
Buddhas
Hold it tightly at the center of their hearts.