Karma Osung – Karmapa Center 16

16th Karmapa’s Guru Yoga Practice: Every First Saturday of the Month

To find happiness and support on the path to full awakening for the benefit of the world, we need to rely on spiritual friends. The practice of guru yoga is, therefore, a profound method to connect with the heart of our teacher and lineage of dharma masters, to receive blessings and help us move away from negative qualities, and cultivate positive qualities in terms of body, speech, and mind.

Rainfall of Nectar

The Guru Yoga Sadhana, “Rainfall of Nectar,” composed by the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, is elegantly concise and contains the essential pith instructions of the Vajrayana tradition.

Every First Saturday of the Month

Every first Saturday of the month, we will offer an opportunity to practice His Holiness the 16th Karmapa’s Guru Yoga together. Regardless of whether you are familiar with the practice and who you consider to be your personal teacher, this practice allows us to connect with the enlightened qualities of the Buddha and, in a way, truly become the activity of the Karmapa, embodying the Buddha’s wisdom and compassion.

What: 16th Gyalwang Karmapa’s Guru Yoga Sadhana
When: First Saturday of the Month, from 10:00 to 11:30 AM Central Time (Chicago, USA)
Where: Online on Zoom and Onsite at KC16. (Liturgies will be screenshared)

Registration, Offerings & Donations

Making an offering or donation is optional and is not required to register for our monthly 16th Gyalwang Karmapa’s Guru Yoga Practice. You can join for free by selecting a ‘free ticket’. If you would like to make a donation to support the stupa project or make an offering to our teachers and resident monastics, please choose an option below.

Fulfilling Our Aspirations

After selecting a ‘free ticket’ or making an offering below, the Zoom link and other practical information will be delivered in a confirmation email.

We warmly invite you to join us and together fulfill all aspirations for ourselves and others through our devotion and virtuous activities.

Karmapa Khyenno!

Responding with Love and Appreciation – 37 Practice – Session 13

Why do we always begin our Meditation for All session with meditation? Following our usual opening chants and the practice of śamatha, Acharya Lhakpa Tshering offered some reflections about the practice of meditation itself. He then continued with his commentary on the sixteenth and seventeenth verse of Ngulchu Tokmé’s 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva, which discuss how to take ingratitude and contempt onto the path of compassion.

Helping Others through Meditation

At the beginning of our meditation session, we bring to mind the main reason for our practice: to attain genuine freedom, enlightenment, for the benefit of all others. Thinking about the current hardship of people close to us as well as the current state of affairs in the world, we connect with the feeling and wish for everyone to be free from hardship, pain, and any form of suffering.

Meditation, our resident teacher pointed out, is the tool that allows our wish to benefit others to become reality. “Without meditation, no matter how much knowledge we would gather, we will not be able to kindle the light of enlightenment.” Why is this so?

Although it may not be easy to say what change you would gain through meditation, Acharya Lhakpa shared, “I have full confidence that I am staying out of many troubles because of the practice of meditation.” We have the aspiration to attain enlightenment to free ourselves and others from suffering. To accomplish this, we need to know ourselves very well. Only this allows us to work with our own mind-stream, so we can change things for the better. By not doing so, there would be no reason to expect any good result to arise. Acharya, therefore, said:

“The practice is mainly to learn how to work with our own mind-stream. It’s not about changing others or merely teaching the Dharma. Practicing the Dharma is about improving ourselves. As we improve ourselves, we naturally become more capable of benefiting others.”

Changing our Habitual Mindset

You may wonder what engaging in the path of the Mahayana might look like. This is what is taught by Ngulchu Tokmé, in a pithy manner, in the 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva. The essence of the Mahayana teachings are all encapsulated in his brief instructions. The next verse shows the sixteenth practice:

“Even if someone I cared for like my child
Should act as though I were their enemy
Like a mother toward her child stricken will illness
To love them even more is the practice of a bodhisattva.”
(Quoted from A Guide to the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, translated by Christopher Stagg)

This verse, like the others before, is also about working with our own habitual tendencies. Our current mindset was likened by Acharya Lhakpa to a “trading mindset” or “business mindset:” “If I do good to you, then you should do good to me.” So, if a person harms me, we tend to wish that person to be hurt and inflict harm in return.

However, if we want to attain the state of buddhahood, and benefit ourselves and others, even if someone we have treated well were to act as if we were their enemy, we should not retaliate or even think badly about such a person. In fact, if that would be our response, we would be further and further removed from our goal. Instead, what would help us, would be to look closely to what extent mental afflictions are still present in our mind-stream since they are what we need to clear away.

Extraordinary Love for Everyone

In this sixteenth verse, Ngulchu Tokmé doesn’t just say we should not react in a harmful manner in return to someone who hurts us; rather, we should “love them even more,” he writes. Why? Because this person is also moving away from liberation and the state of buddhahood through such negative actions which, in turn, are driven by the afflictive emotions.

Acharya Lhakpa commented that this does not mean we should let this person continue to harm us or anyone else. This would actually be a sign of lacking compassion since you would let such a person continue to engage in unwholesome behaviour.

The example given is that of the love of a mother for her child. While it may look harsh on the surface, a mother or any caretaker never intends to inflict any harm but always does good and acts for the benefit of their child —just like a teacher does with his student, Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche notes in his commentary to this text.

The question we should be asking ourselves when we face the kind of situation Ngulchu Tokmé writes about is what would be the right thing to do given the current circumstances? What is beneficial in this present situation? Should we allow some distance or perhaps engage in some mindful conversation?

Cutting the Chain

Part of the message of this verse is that we need to let go of the so-called three spheres: subject, object, and actions. Acharya Lhakpa compares this to a linked chain and the example of giving someone (object) a slice of pizza (action) you consider to be yours (subject). If we don’t let go of these three spheres or do not cut this chain, it will bind us more and more in the world of samsara. Furthermore, it will prevent us from practicing compassion, especially if someone we care for is harming us.

Since the practice of the Mahayana consists of gathering the accumulations of merit and wisdom, we need to engage in acts of generosity and so on (merit) without holding onto the three spheres (wisdom). Only this will lead us to enlightenment, whereas acting out of anger and any disturbing emotion will only put us at an increasingly longer distance from it.

Breaking Our Ego-Clinging

While the sixteenth verse can be described as taking ingratitude to the path, the seventeenth verse is about taking others’ contempt to the path. The first means that even if someone we care for does not show us any sign of kindness or give us something in return, we still respond with genuine love. With the second, we regard someone of equal status or lower in some way or another, who speaks to us in a harsh manner, as an actual teacher:

“Even if someone my equal or lower
Should insult me influenced by pride
To place them with respect, as if they were a guru,
to place them at the crown of my head is the practice of a bodhisattva.”
(Quoted from A Guide to the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, translated by Christopher Stagg)

In his commentary, Acharya Lhakpa said that our spiritual teacher, guru, or lama, is usually pointing out our mistakes or what we are lacking. He/She/They will tell us what to study and practice to change this. In a similar way, a person who is saying something painful is also pointing out something to us. What is that? It is that pride is present in our mind-stream.

This pride or ego, and the kleśas and nonvirtuous actions that follow from it, will again remove us further and further from attaining enlightenment. Since attaining enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings is the goal on the path of the Mahayana, we do not react or retaliate in such a situation as that is in immediate contradiction with our aspiration. Instead, we realize through such situations that mental afflictions are still very much part of our own mind-stream, and that is what we should learn to work with.

This verse, our resident teacher explained, shares the same message as all the previous verses: They all point to what is lacking in ourselves to attain enlightenment. This is a key point of Ngulchu Tokmé’s text, in the words of Acharya:

“Recognizing mental afflictions within our mind-stream and learning how to work with them and taking them onto the path is part of the practice of a bodhisattva. There’s no need to regard these afflictive emotions as something bad or negative. The question to ask ourselves is: How can we clear away these mental states, which keep us from attaining our goal, and use them in such a way that they help us reach enlightenment?”

This is a main point of all the verses that Acharya Lhakpa kindly told us to keep in mind at the conclusion of our session. Thanking everyone for joining us, we dedicated the merit together, and he expressed the wish for everyone to have a wonderful rest of the day, no matter where they are. We look forward to seeing everyone again for our next session.

Karmapa Khyenno!

Taking a Step Back – 37 Practices – Session 12

With snow falling at Karmapa Center 16, Acharya Lhakpa Tshering, guided meditation from our shrine room and we discussed the fifteenth verse from Ngulchu Tokmé’s 37 practices of a Bodhisattva. How can we take denigration or criticism to the path? Especially in this twenty-first century, our resident teacher said we need to learn to take a step back and slow down before we react.

Breathing In, Breathing Out

Before starting our usual śamatha practice, our resident teacher offered some instructions about the posture of our body (straight yet comfortable and relaxed) and the importance of generating the wish for our meditation session to become the causes & conditions for all sentient beings to attain enlightenment (bodhicitta). He highlighted how we can use our breath as a vocal object:

“Just be aware of breathing in, and breathing out. The air flowing through your nostrils. Just simply be aware of your breath. Whenever you find you are distracted, simply bring your mind back to that awareness.”

While sitting, Acharya Lhakpa said, we can repeat this again and again.

Great Aspiration Means Fewer Difficulties

Turning to Ngulchu Tokmé’s text, Acharya Lhakpa first made some general remarks about the path of the Mahayana. When a person makes a commitment to attain enlightenment for all sentient beings means that such a practitioner has a bold or great aspiration. As a consequence, any kind of difficulty will become less important. Therefore, “on the Mahayana path, no matter what difficulties you face, we take or use them as a path to attain enlightenment,” Acharya said.

Verse fifteen points to taking criticism or denigration to the path:

“Even if several people in the midst of a crowd
Should reveal my hidden faults and speak harsh words,
To hold them to be my spiritual friends
And bow to them with respect is the practice of a bodhisattva.”
(Quoted from A Guide to the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, translated by Christopher Stagg)

Embracing Criticism as a Spiritual Friend

If someone criticizes you or reveals your hidden faults, Acharya Lhakpa commented, we should consider this person a spiritual friend. Even if we don’t have any hidden faults at the moment, we could think as follows: “Right now, I am not involved in any nonvirtuous actions like telling lies or killing. But I risk doing such things in the future. Therefore, this person is actually helping me to be more mindful and conscientious.”

Another way of thinking about this is to consider that the person who is criticizing me is under the influence of negative emotions. These make the person blind in the sense of not seeing reality and, thus, not having the wisdom to see clearly.

Either way, what this verse teaches here is that “instead of reacting to any kind of action right away, we should take a moment to observe and contemplate. We should give ourselves time to step back and look at the situation clearly instead of reacting immediately.”

Slowing Down

Acharya Lhakpa shared various examples from his own life to illustrate how in this twenty-first century we indulge in instant gratification and little patience. Driven by social media, instant messaging, and so forth, we react instantaneously, especially with emotions like anger.

The things we say, the emails we write, and any kind of action we engage in, our immediate emotionally-driven responses lead only to further trouble and regret. Therefore, instead of retaliating, we should not react. In fact, we should not only consider a person who denigrates us as a spiritual friend but take all such conditions onto the path.

If we are not able to do this at the beginning, Acharya Lhakpa pointed out what we could do first: “Even if you fall into that kind of situation. Once you cool down, you should reflect on the situation. How did I respond? Is my practice working? Am I able to transform negative emotions and take them onto the path?” Our resident teacher continued saying that “if we are able to control ourselves from the very beginning, this might not only help ourselves, this will also help the person who criticizes you.”

Seeing our Faults

Spiritual friends are not always nice. Nor do they always praise us. In fact, if teachers would only say good things to us, it would lead to a stronger ego and a growing sense of pride. This would kill the seeds of enlightenment, so to speak. Therefore, be it our teacher or someone else who reveals our faults or shortcomings, we should “bow to them with respect.”

This does not mean, Acharya clarified, that we need to go, find this person, and literally bow to them. We can just bow mentally with a sense of appreciation (for this) to those who have pointed out our faults.

Inner Journey as Our Practice

This fifteenth verse is not very difficult to understand. Ngulchu Tokmé has explained the practice of the bodhisattva in a very simple manner. The difficult part is to internalize and take this into practice. What this means is that we should be disciplining ourselves. While telling someone what to do or not to do can sometimes be helpful, the first and foremost thing, Acharya explained, “is how to discipline yourself and take things onto the path. The practice of the Mahayana is an inner journey to improve your own practice, and working with your own mind.”

During a short question-and-answer session, Acharya stressed again how disciplining ourselves is very difficult because of our very deep habitual tendencies. These are not easily overcome. Yet, he said,

“If we work diligently, if we work mindfully, with awareness, then we might be able to overcome our habitual tendencies. Then, we may not need to accumulate wisdom and merit for three countless eons and attain enlightenment in this lifetime.”

In response to one of the questions, Acharya Lhakpa emphasized that the most important thing in practice is our intention. Even if the immediate situation might not seem to improve, we do not need to be discouraged. Instead, we should be appreciative of our intention and diligent efforts to move closer to enlightenment. “We keep the candle lit and are still going strong. That is something to appreciate.”

KC16 About to Start Groundwork

Acharya Lhakpa concluded our session with a few remarks about developments at KC16. He mentioned that we are planning to start the groundwork very soon and get things ready to build a temple and parinirvana stupa to commemorate His Holiness the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, and expand our activities further to study, contemplate, and put the teachings of the Mahayana, especially those of the lineage of the Karmapas, into practice.

Dedicating our merit, may this and all our practices be of benefit!

Karmapa Khyenno!

How to Alleviate Suffering? – 37 Practices – Reflection and Tonglen

How do we let the Dharma blend together with our minds and apply the teachings to our real lives? How can we go beyond the words and put them into practice? During this Sunday’s Meditation for All, we both reflected on the verses covered so far and the commentaries we heard from Acharya Lhakpa Tshering, and continued our training to become courageous bodhisattvas.

Present in This Moment

Following our opening chants, we started with the practice of śamatha, as usual. One way to think of this practice is as a method to let go of whatever happened before this moment and not anticipate what may be after.

By establishing a proper posture of body, speech, and mind, we bring our awareness to the present moment. This allows us to connect with the aspiration to seek genuine freedom, well-being, and happiness, for the benefit of every person, all sentient beings, without exception.

From within this posture and presence, we listened carefully to each verse of Ngulchu Tokmé’s Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva covered so far. This way, we not only became more familiar with the words but also could connect more easily with their meaning.

Reflecting on the Structure and Purpose

Based on the root text, commentaries of Acharya Lhakpa Tshering and Acharya Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen, together with teachings by His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, given in New York in 2018, we looked at the structure of the text and purpose of the various verses covered so far. A slide that was screen-shared during our practice is given below, showing the overview that was discussed.

*Partial overview of Ngulchu Tokmé’s structure of the text and purposes of the verses based on commentary up to verse 14*.

Looking Beyond the Written Page

Adding to the brief summary, a few points were highlighted and illustrated with teachings by the Karmapa. His Holiness, for example, shared that sometimes people practice for a long time without any particular signs of progress. He emphasized that the main reason for this is that “they did not allow their minds to be penetrated by or blend with the preliminary practices.” This refers to the instructions expressed by Ngulchu Tokmé in verses 1 through 7. His Holiness continued by saying:

It is easy to read through a text and get a basic understanding of it, but it is more difficult to apply these teachings to your real life, which is not as simple as reading a book. Life is not that easy because things are mixed—the good and the bad, the true and the false come along together. Since life is difficult and not clear cut like a book, we need to spend time making use of our analytical mind and our wisdom. Life is not an open book, so we need to look beyond the written page to what is happening around us.”

Becoming Courageous Bodhisattvas

Looking more closely at verses 10 through 14, which Acharya Lhakpa ended his commentary on last week, we contemplated the importance of integrating the practice of both even placement and subsequent attainment, or meditation and post-meditation. We can also think of this as practice, both “on the cushion” and “off the cushion.”

As Acharya Lhakpa also has shared at various times, His Holiness teaches how the words in these verses are easy to understand but harder to put into practice. These verses also show that if we want to pursue the bodhisattva path effectively, we should be free of our attachment to the eight worldly dharmas and not focus on experiences of pleasure and pain. In that sense, the bodhisattva training can be considered difficult:

“It requires a great deal of courage and confidence, which do not arise out of nothing but come with gradual training. It is not the case that just because we adopt the Mahayana dharma, we suddenly become courageous bodhisattvas. We have to put ourselves through a process of rigorous training and study.”

Practicing Tonglen to Train Our Minds

A practice that is pointed to by Ngulchu Tokmé, and also discussed by Acharya Lhakpa and Acharya Lama Tenpa, is that of tonglen (“giving and taking”). Towards the end of our session, we engaged in this practice as a way to train in bodhicitta.

In brief, if we see and feel that all beings are worthy of affection as they, too seek happiness and not wish to suffer, we can cultivate the genuine heart of willing to sacrifice our own happiness to alleviate the suffering of all others.

Supported by visualizations and using the movement of our breath, we can deeply connect with the wish to cherish others both on and off the cushion. This includes those close to us as well as those we feel have wronged us, or those we consider to be the source of the undesirable circumstances we have experienced or face currently.

Cherishing Others, Taking Suffering

In this way, we take whatever we do and whatever situation we find ourselves in onto the path, and deeply train our minds. We can check our practice of tonglen by asking ourselves questions like: Do I feel I reduced my attachment to the eight worldly dharma? Am I more able to take on the faults and suffering of others? To what extent do I cherish others more than myself? No matter how small a step, we should look for signs of progress on our path to ensure we train correctly.

To conclude our session, and whenever we practice tonglen, we can express the aspiration: “May I cherish others more than myself; may I take their suffering upon myself.”

Following the dedication of the merit from our practice and the wish that everyone enjoy a wonderful week ahead, everyone was warmly invited to join again next Sunday to listen to Acharya Lhakpa’s commentary on the next verses and continue our training to become courageous bodhisattvas.

Karmapa Khyenno!

All is the Path in Pursuit of the Dream – 37 Practices – Session 11

Wishing everyone Losar Tashi Delek, a happy Tibetan New Year of the Female Wood Snake, we began our practice with the usual opening chants and śamatha meditation. After this, Acharya Lhakpa Tshering offered commentary on the thirteenth and fourteenth verse of Ngulchu Tokmé’s 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva. What to do when someone harms or says unpleasant things about you?

Formal Meditation: Entering Noble Silence

During our practice of śamatha, it is important to pay attention to our posture of body, speech, and mind. Sitting firmly grounded yet relaxed, we turn inward and are simply aware of what appears to our minds, without any evaluation or judgement.

For the posture of speech, it is said that we can think of formal meditation as entering a space of noble silence. We step away from the usual daily activity and, for a moment, don’t speak or use words at all.

Sitting in this physical posture and space of noble silence, we connect with the heart of awakening, bodhicitta: seeking genuine freedom, well-being, happiness, and the state of buddhahood for the benefit of everyone.

Keeping Our Big Vision in Mind

Beginning the discussion of our root text, Acharya Lhakpa mentioned that Gyelse Tokmé Zangpo’s 37 Practices condenses the practice of the Mahāyāna. In short, we set out on this heroic path of a bodhisattva with the intention to achieve enlightenment in order to free all sentient beings from the confusion of samsara.

With this big vision or dream in mind, we pursue it till its completion. What does this mean for our practice? In what ways can we approach our experiences as a path? The thirteenth and fourteenth verse each point to a particular aspect of our lives and how to take that as part of our journey. The first of these reads as follows:

“Should someone sever my head
Even though I did not do the slightest wrong
Through the power of compassion, to take on
Their negativity for myself is the practice of a bodhisattva.”

(Quoted from A Guide to the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, translated by Christopher Stagg)

Turning Suffering into Path

Without a doubt, the world we live in and experience on a daily basis includes all kinds of difficulties and people harming us. Acharya Lhakpa joked that if one of us would find a peaceful place to practice the dharma without such situations, to please send him an email or let him know!

Although the root verse speaks about one particular form of great suffering — our own death — it is really about the way we can utilize hardships and pain in such a way that they become the causes and conditions for attaining enlightenment. It is not so much about someone actually cutting off our head but more about what we should do in response to any kind of harm, great or small, that is inflicted upon us. Ngulchu Tokmé writes that the path of a bodhisattva is to take on their negativity in return through the power of compassion.

How (and why) should we do this? Acharya Lhakpa explained that the person who inflicts any degree of harm on us is simply overpowered or controlled by mental afflictions like attachment, aversion, or ignorance. Furthermore, living in an interdependent world since beginningless time, he/she/they surely have benefited us at some point. Yet, above all, we have committed ourselves to seek enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. This aspiration includes anyone who might harm us. Instead of harming this person in return, we generate compassion and give rise to bodhicitta.

Taking Small Steps in Everyday Life

Acharya Lhakpa further commented that we may not be able to respond to suffering with compassion and give rise to the heart of awakening right away. However, we can at least begin by reflecting on our actions and learn how to work with suffering on our paths. If we are not able to do so and continue this downward movement of nonvirtuous activity due to our mental afflictions, we will never find a place that is in harmony with practicing the dharma and fulfilling our dreams.

Having the understanding that nonvirtuous activity is due to mental afflictions, and the person who harms us accumulates negative karma as a consequence of that, we engage in the practice of tonglen (“giving and taking”). This means that we take on his/her/their negative karma and give the virtue we have accumulated ourselves in return. This is something we can practice in everyday life, in small steps. For example, Acharya said, when someone cuts the line at the grocery store, instead of reacting negatively, we can just let it go.

Taking Unpleasant Words Onto the Path

The fourteenth verse follows the same way of thinking:

“Even if some should proclaim unpleasant things
About me throughout the three-thousand-fold universe,
With a mind of loving-kindness, to speak of their qualities
In return is the practice of a bodhisattva.”

Our resident teacher shared that he thought this verse is particularly helpful in our twenty-first century, especially when thinking about how fast news spreads these days. Whether someone says something about ourselves, our close ones, our country, or whatever it may be that we experience as unpleasant, we don’t act (or react) negatively in return nor do we hold onto such incidents. Basically, this verse teaches us to take anything we feel as being unpleasant onto the path.

Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche’s Pith Instruction

Usually, we very much like hearing pleasant words or praise, and we easily get upset when people say unpleasant things or blame us. Acharya Lhakpa shared that he had the great fortune once to receive a pith instruction from Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, the teacher of his own teacher, Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, that relates to this. “Khenpo Rinpche gave this pith instruction to me, and it is still very vividly present in my mind and very, very beneficial for me. I hope it will bring the same magnitude of benefit to all of you.”

In short, Khenpo Rinpoche instructed not to get attached to the good things people say about us nor to hold onto any negative comments.. These are just a play of their thoughts. Praise or blame follow from people’s conceptual thinking. Those, in turn, are driven by the mental afflictions. So, if someone praises or blames you for something, it merely shows their mental constructs and afflictive emotions.

Furthermore, we know from our own experience that these remarks are not trustworthy or stable whatsoever. A person might have a positive thought and praise you in the morning, and have a negative thought and blame you the very same evening. Thus, there is no point in getting attached to either one.

When Things Go Viral

Ngulchu Tokmé writes in this verse that we should practice loving-kindness, “even if some should proclaim unpleasant things about me throughout the three-thousand-fold universe [Acharya’s emphasis].” This, Acharya Lhakpa commented, must be something greatly unpleasant. He likened this to someone expressing something negative about you and it going viral, the words finding their way to all corners of the world.

Instead of reacting negatively out of pride, which would become an obstacle for fulfilling our dream of attaining enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, we say positive and good things about that person in return. This will help to break or tear down our pride and thus bring us closer to attaining our goal. “Pride is one of the obstacles to attaining complete enlightenment. There is no enlightenment if there is pride. Therefore, to attain our goal, we should be free from any pride.”

The pith instruction given here by Ngulchu Tokmé and mirrored in the words of Khenpo Rinpoche is that of letting go of our attachment to pleasant things and aversion to unpleasant things. Acharya Lhakpa summed it up by saying:

“If our dream is to attain the state of omniscience, if that is what we are truly seeking to achieve, we need to let go of our attachments and not be affected by any negativity. By clearing away these obstacles, we will attain the state of omniscience.”

To conclude, Acharya Lhakpa emphasized not to get lost in the words and examples of extreme violence or unpleasant things mentioned in the text.

“Please try to get the message or instruction given here and how to apply that in our path. We don’t have to apply all that is taught but take one stance or word that is useful in everyday life. If this gives you the message, I think that will be okay.”

Following those words, we dedicated the merit and Acharya Lhakpa wished everyone a wonderful day, afternoon, or night, and warmly invited everyone to join again next Sunday.

Please Don’t Wait to Practice – 37 Practices – Session 10

Our resident teacher, Acharya Lhakpa Tshering, began our session by guiding our meditation practice once again. He offered some brief instructions, starting with giving rise to the enlightened intention: “Whatever positive outcome we may get from this practice, may it be the seed of enlightenment for myself and all sentient beings.” Together with a comfortable posture of body, the most important point is to meditate with a simple awareness of the present moment, without any pressure. Not being able to relax would otherwise turn into an obstacle. “So, relax,” he said.“Just be simply aware.”

Post-Meditation: Dealing with the World

The verse Acharya Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen taught last week, verse eleven, focused on the practice of Tonglen (giving and taking) from within meditative equipoise (a deep state of concentration). The next ten verses are about post-meditation practice or subsequent attainment, starting with verse twelve:

“Even if someone, out of intense desire, steals all my wealth,
Or makes another do so,
To dedicate my body, possessions, and all virtue of the three times
To them is the practice of a bodhisattva.”

(Quoted from A Guide to the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, translated by Christopher Stagg)

Post-meditation practice starts the moment we rise from meditative practice and deal with the real world: our jobs, family, friends, or work for our center. The practice pointed out here by Ngulchu Tokmé is that of taking loss onto the path.

Bringing Enlightenment Closer Through Dedication

The first two lines, Acharya Lhakpa commented, have a very deep meaning. While the verse speaks about the person who steals our wealth as the one having great desire, this is something that applies to all of us. Perhaps the degree differs, but we all have some kind of desire and continuously try to accumulate things for ourselves.

As a consequence, if someone steals what we have accumulated, we typically react with anger and seek revenge. When we do so, Acharya pointed out, we are no different from the person who stole our wealth. “That will not make us a bodhisattva,” he said.

What bodhisattvas do, in contrast, is to dedicate everything they have to this person–their body, wealth, and all merit–and wish that negative karma does not come to fruition for him/her/them. Instead, we wish this person to be free of suffering. “If we are able to dedicate in this way, it will bring our full enlightenment closer to us,” Acharya said.

Making Dedication Meaningful

The questions you may have, Acharya Lhakpa said, are: “Why should I be kind instead of punishing this person? Why should I give my body, possessions, and virtues I have accumulated?” What we need to do, he continued, is to change our mindset. We can do so in two ways.

One way of thinking is how all beings have either served us in some way or another in previous lives (since we have been in samsara from beginningless time) or that we perhaps stole from this person. Another way of thinking is that this person actually has no freedom or autonomy because of being under the influence or compelled by the afflictive emotion of desire. It is like the example given by Śāntideva in The Way of the Bodhisattva: if someone hits us with a stick, we will be angry with the person. But the person (or thief) here is like the stick. The intense desire (or the mental affliction) is the one controlling the action; the person/thief has no autonomy, as he is overpowered by the intense desire.

In one way or another, it shows how it makes no sense to be angry at this person and, instead, be kind and dedicate all we have to them. It is important to do that with one of these views in mind. If we would merely think, “I will give this to you,” then our dedication has little meaning.

Letting Go

In a previous verse, Acharya Lhakpa reminded us, Ngulchu Tokmé already taught that we cannot take anyone or anything with us at the time of death, including our own body, which we so dearly cherish. Therefore, a bodhisattva lets go of this life; but what about the virtue we accumulate?

As a beginning dharma practitioner, we speak about accumulating merit as a method to generate interest and a joyful mind towards practicing the dharma—just like we play games and introduce all kinds of arts to children to educate them. In this way, we think we will be getting something. This makes use of our very strong habit of wishing to accumulate things.

“However,” our resident teacher taught, “when we practice dharma, there is nothing to accumulate. We have to let go as much as we can. Doing so, we will realize emptiness and attain enlightenment.” There really is nothing collecting nor something to be collected. So, we let go and dedicate everything to other beings.

Practicing Right Now

To conclude, what is the main practice pointed out by Ngulchu Tokmé in this verse? Is it about the person who is stealing all our wealth and possessions? “No,” Acharya Lhakpa said.

“The main thought and practice pointed out is about us holding on, cherishing and being attached to our body, possessions, and all virtue of the three times. It is this that we need to let go of. If we can’t let go of that, it will turn into an obstacle for obtaining the state of buddhahood.”

“Furthermore,” Acharya Lhakpa added, “we should not wait until someone with intense desire comes and steals our wealth. We should practice letting go of our body, possessions, and virtue now.” While practicing fully and directly, truly giving these away to others, may be very difficult; what we can do right now, without a thief coming along, is to reduce our attachment and decrease our holding onto things. “Please, don’t wait till someone comes and forcefully pushes you to practice. We should engage in the practice right now,” concluded Acharya Lhakpa.

Following those words, we ended our session by dedicating the merit.

The Heart of Sharing – 37 Practices – Session 9

During this week’s Meditation for All, we were joined by Acharya Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen. A dear friend of our resident teacher, Acharya Lhakpa Tshering, Lama Tenpa was a member of the first class of Rumtek Monastery’s Shri Nalanda Institute in Sikkim, India, as was our advisor, Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche. Chancellor of Nalandabodhi and a great teacher and meditation guide, Acharya Lama Tenpa kindly accepted Acharya Lhakpa’s request to teach us about the eleventh verse of The Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva.

Being Lucky: Paying Homage to His Holiness the 16th Karmapa

Following our opening chants and śamatha practice, with an emphasis on our physical posture and giving rise to bodhicitta, Acharya Lama Tenpa began by paying homage to the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje.

Wishing everyone tashi delek, he expressed how honored and happy he was to lead the session, not just because of this particular session and topic but also because it was another way of recollecting the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa. In fact, he said, he felt very fortunate and blessed to have met His Holiness. Likewise, Lama Tenpa shared how everyone present was lucky for having a connection with KC16 and, therefore, also with the Sixteenth Karmapa.

Turning to our topic and the eleventh verse of Tokmé Zangpo’s text, The Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, Acharya Lama Tenpa stressed how his guru, Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, always told his students to recite and practice this text. Furthermore, Khenpo Rinpoche told him to teach this text again and again since it is a very important and powerful practice.

The Importance and Benefits of Bodhicitta

The first thing to note, Acharya Lama Tenpa said, is the importance of bodhicitta or the heart of enlightenment, not only for our spiritual path but also for our daily lives. “In order to have a healthy spiritual path, you need bodhicitta,” he said. “In order to have a good life, you need bodhicitta. In order to have a good community, you need bodhicitta. So, bodhicitta is very, very important.”

For this reason, the Buddha taught bodhicitta to be like water or breath, and the great Indian master Śāntideva opens his important text, The Way of the Bodhisattva, with a long chapter about the benefits of bodhicitta. “What we need,” Lama Tenpa said, “is only bodhicitta. Both in our spiritual life and our mundane life. We need bodhicitta.”

How to Cultivate Bodhicitta? Three Main Methods

Knowing the importance of bodhicitta, the next question to ask is: How do we cultivate or generate the heart of awakening? While there are many ways, Lama Tenpa taught there are three main methods:

Tracking down the cause: What is the cause of bodhicitta? Contemplating this, we will find that compassion is the near cause and stands in a chain of causality that goes back to love and connection.
Equalizing self and other: Just as we want to be happy and free of suffering, all beings want to be happy and free of suffering. We are equal in this regard.
Exchanging self and other: We give our own happiness and well-being to others, and take from them their pain, suffering, and confusion.

Lama Tenpa pointed out that the third method, exchanging self and other, is taught by Tokmé Zangpo in the eleventh verse that reads:

All suffering, without exception, arises from the desire for one’s own happiness.
Perfect buddhas are born from benefiting others.
Therefore, to perfectly exchange one’s own happiness
For others’ suffering is the practice of a bodhisattva. (11)
(Quoted from A Guide to the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, translated by Christopher Stagg)

Mistaken About the Cause: Wanting Happiness, Receiving Suffering

The “perfect buddhas,” Acharya Lama Tenpa taught, can be understood to mean “happiness.” Regardless of who you ask and no matter their background, he said, this is something everyone agrees about: We all want happiness. For how long? We might not say this out loud, but deep down, we want to be happy all the time. However, what do we get? Confusion, pain, and suffering. The question we need to ask: Why?

To contemplate this, Lama Tenpa shared an example. Imagine you want to lose weight but also keep eating chocolate all the time. You go to a specialist for help, who points to books and provides various exercises; you receive many methods. However, you don’t give up eating chocolate. You may be surprised, but since you are not giving up the cause, the chocolate, you will not lose weight.

Similarly, our guest teacher pointed out, we want to be perfect buddhas, but we experience suffering. This is because we are mistaken about the cause of happiness. Given our ego-clinging, view of self, or self-centered way of thinking–the cause of suffering–we do not get happiness but experience saṃsāra instead.

Changing the Habit of Thinking

In this verse, Tokmé Zangpo says that the “desire for one’s own happiness” is the root of all problems. The result of this self-centered way of thinking, the preoccupation with “me,” “my,” and “mine,” is suffering. We consider our own happiness to be the most important, but it is this very desire for our own happiness that leads to the opposite, suffering.

Once we recognize this, Acharya Lama Tenpa commented, we need to change. Reminding us of the example of wishing to lose weight, what we really need to do (in that case) is change our diet and stop eating chocolate all the time. Similarly, if we want to change the quality of our lives, we need to change our habits of thought. Instead of our usual self-centered way of thinking, we need to expand our mind and benefit others. This is the mindset of a bodhisattva.

Exchange Self and Other

While there are many ways of changing our habitual self-fixation, the eleventh verse offers us one particular method: exchanging self and others. What this means, Acharya Lama Tenpa commented, is that we give away our happiness and well-being to others. In return, we take their suffering and pain.

Lama Tenpa illustrated this practice by drawing a distinction between the type of mind of ordinary beings compared to that of a bodhisattva. The former continuously thinks, “I want this and that, give me such and such.” This, he taught, is just another function of self-centered thinking and a very narrow, limited mind. The type of mind of a bodhisattva stands in contrast to this, thinking: “I am here to give, to offer, to share.”

Expanding our minds in this way is what is called cultivating bodhicitta. This, Lama Tenpa concluded, is what the text teaches us: “Perfect buddhas are born from benefiting others.” This is the heart of giving, offering, and caring. Rather than thinking, “I want happiness,” we start to think, “I want you to be happy.” This is the practice of a bodhisattva.

Intermezzo: Cultivating an Altruistic Aspiration and Bodhicitta

Following our opening chants, we began the practice of śamatha (calm-abiding meditation). We can also think of this formal meditation practice as resting at ease or slowing down the mind. In addition, two key points were emphasized: having a beginner’s mind and our physical posture.

Beginner’s Mind

Some might feel very familiar with śamatha practice, others feel it is very new to them, or for others as something in-between. What is important to remember is what is known from the Zen-tradition as “beginner’s mind.”

While slowing down and taking a step back from the usual rhythm of our lives, which often just takes us along, we can bring curiosity and wonder towards Atiśa’s question that we asked ourselves during our last session: What is the state of my mind, right now, this very moment?

Having a beginner’s mind also means we look at the movement and state of our mind without any judgment—without evaluating it as good or bad, positive or negative. As Acharya Lhakpa Tshering often instructs during our practice: “Be aware; simply be aware.”

Importance of the Posture of Body

Not so much as a precondition but as part of the practice of śamatha, we pay attention to our physical posture. That, by itself, helps to let the mind slow down and bring clarity. This way, we can see the state of our mind clearly and work with it.

Therefore, we sit well-grounded and balanced, with our hands resting on our knees or in our lap. We straighten our spine, which in one way can be understood as making sure we are centered. Our shoulders are slightly pushed towards the back, opening our chest. We tuck in our chin, and our tongue slightly touches the upper palate. Relaxing the jaw, our mouth typically opens slightly. We relax our forehead and our eyes. Our gaze is resting in front of us without looking at a particular object. We gently notice the movement of our breath.

In some traditions, it is taught that our physical posture is half of the work or even more than ninety percent. In any case, it is clear that paying attention to our physical posture is of great importance.

Having established our physical posture, we can look again and ask: What is the state of my mind, right now, in this moment?

Connecting with the Wisdom-Intent and Our Capability on the Path

While remaining seated in our posture of body, we recited the homage, purposes of the composition, and first ten verses of Ngulchu Tokmé’s Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva. By doing so in this manner and by looking carefully at how the words impact us, we can connect deeply with the wisdom-intent.

Before contemplating Verse 10, we briefly reviewed the two verses we contemplated the previous week.

Verse 8: This one focuses on the fact that all our actions of body, speech, and mind, are in a chain of cause and effect. As taught in the Sūtras by Buddha Śākyamuni, no karma is “wasted,” meaning that whatever action we perform will, sooner or later, have a result. Therefore, Ngulchu Tokmé teaches us with this verse to never commit any negative actions because, at some point, these will only lead to suffering.
Verse 9: If we don’t commit negative actions of body, speech, and mind, but engage in virtuous activity, we will increasingly find ourselves in comfortable places, with wealth in both material and immaterial ways. In a worldly sense, we may feel happy and at ease. However, Ngulchu Tokmé points out in the ninth verse that none of these pleasurable states of being offer any lasting happiness. Rather, the things we enjoy are fleeting and very quickly fade away, like a “dewdrop on a blade of grass.” Therefore, we should strive for the supreme state of liberation to be fully free of pain, despair, and suffering — the state of samsara.

These two verses, as explained by Acharya Lhakpa, show the lesser and middling types of being or capability, respectively. The tenth verse points to the highest capacity. We can also think of these in terms of potential. For most of us, if not all, we move between these three, depending on the day or week. Sometimes even within one day or a single formal meditation session.

Making a Connection

Reminding us of the importance of our physical posture, we continued contemplating the three types of potential or capability, focusing on the highest one as expressed in the tenth verse of Ngulchu Tokmé’s Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, as translated by Christopher Stagg:

“From beginningless time, my mothers have loved me.
If they suffer, how can I worry about my own happiness?
Therefore, in order to liberate sentient beings, which are boundless,
To engender bodhicitta is the practice of a bodhisattva.”

In his commentary on this verse, the twentieth-century master Dzatrul Ngawang Tenzin Norbu explains that recognizing all sentient beings as having been our mother gives us all the reasons to follow the example of past bodhisattvas by practicing in the same way for the benefit of others. Acharya Lhakpa further clarified that the notion of “mother” serves as an instruction to find a way to connect with every being without exception. This connection forms the basis upon which loving-kindness, compassion, and ultimately the resolve to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all (bodhicitta) can be cultivated.

Sevenfold Cause-And-Effect Instruction to Generate Bodhicitta

From the perspective of making a connection, we engage in a slightly adapted version of the sevenfold cause-and-effect instruction from the Kadampa tradition to engender or cultivate bodhicitta. In brief:

Bring someone to mind who has been kind to you in this life and feels close to your heart. This could be your mother, father, brother, sister, relatives, a teacher, anyone.
Feeling the presence of this person, recollect or remember the kindness you received.
Realizing the kindness that person gave to you, connect with the feeling and intention to repay this kindness and offer something in return, material or immaterial.
Having the wish to repay the kindness of him/her/they, give rise to the thought: “How wonderful would it be if this person knew nothing but peace and joy in life.” Gently smile and imagine their life to be so. Free of any hardship. This is the quality of loving-kindness.
Remember a time when things were not easy for this person or visualize the possibility of such a moment or period. Give rise to the thought: “Oh no, what can I do to help?” We feel the urgency and think: “May this suffering be dispelled. May this person be completely free of this hardship.” This is the quality of compassion.
Realizing that, like this person, everyone — every creature we know or don’t know, seen or not seen, maybe different in appearance but equal at this fundamental level — wishes nothing but happiness and does everything they can to avoid suffering; and by seeing this equality, we give rise to the thought: “I will do whatever I possibly can to remove the suffering of beings and bring all of them to a place for genuine freedom and happiness.” This could be called the quality of the highest resolve or altruistic aspiration.
With each single step being the cause for the next, all six together are taught to become the cause for the highest result or effect of the sevenfold instruction: bodhicitta.

This powerful meditation practice aims to cultivate genuine compassion and engender the heart of awakening as Ngulchu Tokmé instructs in the tenth verse.

In this way, we deepened our connection to these three kinds of capabilities and the ways to contemplate them as support for our practice. Having expressed gratitude to everyone for joining today’s practice, we concluded with the dedication of merit and wish to cultivate this highest resolve that is the basis for bodhicitta and the practice of a bodhisattva as taught from verse 11 onwards.

Intermezzo: Contemplating Karma and Saṃsāra

Settling into a formal meditation posture for our practice of śamatha (calm-abiding meditation) after our opening chants, we emphasized a key point of this particular meditation technique: to ensure our body is comfortable yet awake, and is a support to look at the state of our mind.

What is the State of My Mind?

Atiśa Dīpaṅkaraśrījñāna, the great Indian master who is renowned in the history of Tibetan Buddhism and considered the founder of the Kadampa tradition, is said to have emphasized asking ourselves: What is the state of my mind? We often ask ourselves how we are doing and reply with an answer relating to our physical well-being. However, the more important question to ask, according to Atiśa, is about our mental state: What is the state of my mind in this moment?

When looking at the state of our mind, following the instructions of Acharya Lhakpa Tshering, we can do so without judgement. Instead, we can approach this practice with curiosity and openness. We don’t need to force the mind to be in a particular state or have certain thoughts or not. Rather, we look with awareness and simply notice: What is the state of my mind, right now?

Some Instructions for Contemplative Meditation Practice

In the wake of our śamatha practice, we moved into two contemplative meditations. Whenever we step into such practice, we can keep a few instructions in mind:

Sit in a formal meditation posture (like with śamatha practice);
Feel grounded and connect with a sense of calmness and openness;
Contemplate questions or statements with wonder;
Don’t apply a strong force to reasoning or thinking nor think you need to find an answer right away;
See how you respond physically, emotionally, and mentally without judgement;
Notice how it impacts you, in this moment.

At the end of our contemplative practice, we can make a brief mental note to ourselves with a sense of joy and appreciation for the experience, and possibly having gained a new or deeper understanding, or particular insight. And then we simply let go and practice śamatha again for a brief moment.

Obtaining Stable Trust in Karma, Cause and Effect

In his commentary on the eighth verse, Acharya Lhakpa noted various times that we do not need to seek the lower realms, or any realm, somewhere “out there.” We can just look at our present world and the state of our mind. His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, says something along the same lines:

“The lower realms have been described as deep underneath us or far away from the earth. But we can find smaller versions of these realms in this very world, right before our eyes. It is not necessary to look below the earth or anywhere else, because war and famine are happening right now, and they are exactly what has been described as the misery of the lower realms.”

Seeing the lower realms in this way and to bring it closer, we can consider the following:

When did we contribute, in some way or another, to the suffering of ourselves and/or others? We can bring to mind any moment, no matter how small or big, when we were a contributing factor to harm or pain.
What were the various causes and conditions that led to this moment? Understand that there is never a single cause nor might we have the full picture of everything involved. Yet, we can connect with the fact that cause and effect is at play.
Consider how negative states of mind, harmful speech, or unwholesome actions of body, only lead to suffering. Likewise, how positive states of mind, kind speech, and wholesome actions of body, can bring happiness.

As a way to conclude this contemplation, reflect on the following words of Atiśa:

“What is truly profound is none other than karma, [cause] and result. Obtaining stable trust in karma, cause and effect, is more supreme than seeing the face of the yidam deity.”
Quoted from A Guide to the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, translated by Christopher Stagg

Leaving the Swamp of Saṃsāra

The previous session, Acharya Lhakpa suggested we think of the higher realms, be it the demigods, gods, form realms or formless realms, as living in a high-end neigborhood. Putting aside any prejudices we might have towards such a place, we can think of it as a place of peace and joy, then visualize and consider the following:

Imagine a happy and peaceful neighborhood that is safe, clean, spacious, and full of flowers and trees.
Visualize everything that would make your high-end neighborhood as lovely as possible, be it with parks, fountains, particular shops, a house you really would like to live in, whatever might be the source of your happiness.
Consider that these outer objects are all conditioned phenomena: dependent on the gathering of causes and conditions and, thus, impermanent. See in front of you how this high-end neighborhood slowly, but surely, starts to deteriorate and all things fall apart.
Apply the same impermanence to your own body: day-by-day, the body becomes older, we are affected by sickness, and, at some point, sooner or later, this life will come to an end. Just like we can not stay in a high-end neighbourhood indefinitely, we will need to let go of this body too, and not quite know where we will end up next.
Connect with the fact that such a neighbourhood and life in this world cannot offer lasting happiness. Therefore, determine clearly that there is no point in being attached to this kind of happiness and make sure to seek out liberation.

As a way to conclude this second contemplation, that relates to the ninth verse, we can reflect on the following words of Atiśa:

“Friends, this swamp of samsara is without happiness; go to the dry land of liberation.”
Quoted from A Guide to the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, translated by Christopher Stagg

Progressing Along the Path in Our Own Dialectic Manner

Contemplative meditations like the above offer a way to make a personal connection with the instructions of Ngulchu Tokmé and the explanations of Acharya Lhakpa. In our context, it can help us see and feel how verse 8, 9, and 10 indeed show a progression on the heroic path of a bodhisattva.

As we consider this progression, it will help us to do so without any judgment about where we should be on the path or how things should be. What is most important is to understand our own personal path and practice. This is something that can change moment-to-moment, day-by-day, and week-by-week.

In other words, rather than thinking of this progress in a linear way, moving up, we can think of it as a dialectical process. Today we may strongly connect with karma, thinking “Oh, I should really avoid negative actions.” Tomorrow, we may connect more with the absence of lasting happiness, thinking “Oh, I thought this was a source of happiness but I see it is not…” And at other times we may really connect with an altruistic intention when we help someone. In this way, we connect with and strengthen all three capabilities. Bringing all three together in this way can support our practice and help us progress along our own paths.

With that final remark and thanking everyone for joining this practice, we concluded with the dedication of merit and the wish for all beings to be well and attain enlightenment.

Cultivating an Expansive Mind and Boundless Heart on the Spiritual Path – 37 Practices – Session 8

Acharya Lhakpa Tshering welcomed everyone onsite and online and led us in the practice of śamatha (calm-abiding meditation). Reminding us of some key points during this practice, our resident teacher emphasized the importance of openness and relaxation. In particular, he gave instructions on how to relate to our breathing during meditation, saying:

“If your breathing is shallow, let it be shallow. If your breathing is deep, let it be deep. Don’t try to alter your breathing because you are doing meditation.”

What is important is to simply feel and be aware of our breath as it comes in and goes out. This practice helps bring the mind to the present moment and allows us to stay with present awareness.

Three Beings or Capabilities: How to Make Progress on the Path?

During our previous Meditation for All session we spoke about the eighth verse from the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, written by the great Tibetan master, Ngulchu Tokmé. This verse, Acharya Lhakpa reminded us, speaks about those beings who fear the sufferings of the lower realms and seek to maintain the happiness of the realms of humans or gods. As a sidenote, he mentioned that we can think of gods as beings who live, perhaps, in a high-end neighbourhood but still remain in the cycle of saṃsāra, falling down into lower states when their merit is exhausted.

Acharya stressed that while beings who pursue the comforts of the higher realms are described as “lesser” or “inferior,” this has little to do with looking down on or criticizing them. It is more about the capability of a person engaging in practice. The next two verses describe the path of the middling and supreme beings, respectively, illuminating how to make progress.

The Middling Being or Capacity: Seeking Personal Liberation

The ninth verse shows the practice of the middling beings or those with a middling capacity:

“The pleasures of the three realms, like dewdrops on a blade of grass, Are objects that perish in an instant.
To strive for the supreme state of liberation
That is never changing is the practice of a bodhisattva.”

–Quoted from A Guide to the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, translated by Christopher Stagg

The person with this middling ability understands that the happiness of all three realms is like a dewdrop on a blade of grass: without essence, impermanent, and ever-changing. This includes the form and formless realms.

This is similar to what Acharya taught during previous sessions about the lower realms reflecting our mental afflictions; the form and formless realms also do not point to some kind of place “out there.” They refer, instead, to a state of mind that is accomplished through meditation practice. In this case, while these states of mind may be free from attachments and material desires, they are still within saṃsāra. Clearly seeing this, middling beings strive for the never-changing state of liberation.

Leading us in an analytical meditation practice, Acharya Lhakpa helped us to understand how the happiness in our human lives is indeed like a dewdrop on a blade of grass. While the beings with lesser ability are content with the comforts of human life and/or the higher realms, those with middling capacity realize samsaric happiness to be like a dewdrop during a serene early morning–beautiful, perhaps, but disappearing with the slightest vibration or sunlight. Because they want to get out of this trouble only for themselves, this is known as the path of the middling beings.

The Path of the Mahāyāna: Connecting with Other Beings

The next verse from our root text concerns the third and highest capacity, and was translated by Christopher Stagg as follows:

“From beginningless time, my mothers have loved me.
If they suffer, how can I worry about my own happiness?
Therefore, in order to liberate sentient beings, which are boundless,
To engender bodhicitta is the practice of a bodhisattva.”

The way of thinking taught in this verse, Achara Lhakpa explained, is that we have taken birth again and again since time without beginning. This being so, all beings have been our mother at some point and kindly have taken care of us. Therefore, with a feeling of gratitude and understanding of the equal importance of all beings, we seek complete enlightenment for the benefit of everyone and not narrowly limit ourselves to personal liberation.

If we find it difficult to relate to this notion of beginningless time, rebirth, and/or considering all beings as our mother, Acharya pointed out that the key point is about making a connection. Seeing someone as a caring mother is like an example. We could also think in the following way: Yesterday was our past life, today is the present, and tomorrow will be a new one. Contemplating our existence in this way allows us to realize how our well-being depends on countless others. Without them, we wouldn’t even be able to survive.

To connect with other sentient beings, we can bring to mind someone–a brother, sister, uncle, aunt, anyone we feel close to–and cultivate a feeling of an intimate relationship. Taking this approach, we practice loving-kindness and compassion. This is the foundation of the Mahāyāna. “Without this practice, there would be no path of Mahāyāna,” Acharya said.

Bodhicitta as Supreme Ability: Boundless Compassion

Slowly we begin to understand the equal importance of all sentient beings. Generally, Acharya Lhakpa shared, we have the habitual tendency to think in limited ways and are oftentimes not able to practice loving-kindness and compassion for a certain individual or group of beings. We might even have the desire to benefit others, but only to a certain degree. “I want to be kind to all sentient beings, except that uncle. Something like that,” he said.

In contrast, those with the supreme capacity are able to open their hearts for all sentient beings. Not thinking in terms of “mine” and “yours,” or any other kind of limitation, their compassion is beyond measure. The Four Immeasurables that we usually recite at the beginning of our session relate to this. Making our minds as vast as the sky and opening our hearts in this way, is known as giving rise to bodhicitta–the heart of awakening.

Beings with middling capacity share the same wisdom. They see that all samsaric happiness is like a dewdrop on a blade of grass. However, they lack the methods of loving-kindness and compassion for all sentient beings. Therefore, those who bring method and wisdom together, are known as supreme beings who practice the way or vehicle of the bodhisattvas.

A Guide on the Path

Summarizing verse eight, nine, and ten, Acharya shared his own understanding of these verses. Rather than thinking in terms of classes or categories of different beings, Ngulchu Tokmé teaches us about our motivation for our practice and offers a guide to progress on the path.

First, we contemplate the suffering of the lower realms and strive for the happiness of the higher ones. Second, we develop the insight that this happiness is only temporary and impermanent. Thus, we strive for unchanging liberation, which means that we will not fall back into the world of suffering. Seeing the narrow or limited quality of this individual liberation, we open the heart of compassion and strive for complete enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.

“The intention of the author here is not to describe three different beings but rather how one can develop on the path through practicing step-by-step, and making progress to attain complete enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.”

With this note, Acharya Lhakpa concluded our session and expressed his gratitude to everyone onsite and online for joining. Next Sunday we will continue our meditation practice and contemplate this further. After dedicating the merit, Acharya wished everyone a wonderful day.