In verses 11 through 21, Ngulchu Tokmé teaches us about relative bodhicitta. With verse 22, we arrive at the topic of ultimate bodhicitta, which leads us into investigating the nature of mind. How to cut through our confusion about reality is pointed out in verse 23 and 24.
These three verses, Acharya Lhakpa Tshering, our resident teacher, explained, are at the heart of the highest teachings of secret mantra, Dzogchen, and Mahamudra. So, if we understand these verses, we have all we need. If we don’t, none of the instructions of these profound lineages will benefit us.
Relative Bodhicitta in Meditation and Post-Meditation
The main instruction of Ngulchu Tokmé’s 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva is how to give rise to bodhicitta or the awakened heart. This consists of relative and ultimate bodhicitta. The first can be divided into the practice of bodhicitta in meditative equipoise or single-pointed meditative state; the second is about post-meditation or subsequent attainment.
Among these two, cultivating bodhicitta in a single-pointed meditative state is expressed in verse 11, and concerns exchanging your own happiness with the suffering of others. How to cultivate bodhicitta in post-meditation is pointed out in verse 11 through 21.
Ultimate Bodhicitta: Where or What is Mind?
Verse 22 teaches us about ultimate bodhicitta and reads:
“Whatever appears is one’s own mind.
Mind is primordially free from extremes of elaboration.
Knowing this is so, to not mentally engage
The signs of perceiver and perceived is the practice of a bodhisattva.”
(Quoted from A Guide to the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, translated by Christopher Stagg)
Regardless of whether we are thinking about worldly activities or practicing the dharma, the mind is that which considers things to be in a certain way. We have thoughts like, “Oh, this is what it is” and “Maybe it is like that.” If we investigate closely, however, does the mind truly exist?
Acharya encouraged us to consider this carefully by looking at the way our sense faculties interact with their objects, which eventually leads to mental afflictions like attachment and aversion, depending on whether we consider something attractive and pleasant or unattractive and unpleasant.
This is true for all our senses and their objects: It is solely due to our own mind that we consider things to be attractive or not. The objects themselves have no such inherent quality. Therefore, mental afflictions arise due to how we think of objects when we make contact with them through our sense faculties. Furthermore, whether we consider something pleasant or unpleasant is due to habitual tendencies.
Free from the Beginning
If we look closely, notions of attractive and pleasant, and their opposites, as well as habitual tendencies, are not part of the essence of mind. In fact, the mind is primordially free. Elaborations about existence and non-existence, and how we think of something, are not inherently part of mind.
Reflecting on how people in the Himalayas and scientists speak about the location of mind, Acharya points out that mind cannot be found anywhere. This does not mean it does not exist. As the verse indicates, from the very beginning, mind is free from extremes such as existence and non-existence.
If we understand the meaning of what Ngulchu Tokmé is pointing out with this 22nd verse and know how to put it into practice, then there is nothing more to be learned from the highest pith instruction like Mahamudra and Dzogchen. Furthermore, Acharya emphasized, “if we don’t understand this, then no matter what higher pith instruction we study or practice, we will not be able to understand or get the taste of those.” In other words, all teachings of secret mantra are brought together in this particular verse and, when contemplated carefully, help us to give rise to ultimate bodhicitta.
Seeing through Mind’s Confusion
The two following verses concern our own confusion about appearances. In verse 23, Ngulchu Tokmé points to our confusion about seeming outer objects and the experience of happiness. In verse 24, he teaches about taking mind’s inner appearances as real and the subsequent suffering. In both cases, the practice of a bodhisattva consists of seeing through this confusion as is expressed by Ngulchu Tokmé in the following way:
“Encountering pleasurable objects
Is like seeing a rainbow in the summertime.
Although they appear beautiful and real, to see them as not being real
And relinquish attachment is the practice of a bodhisattva.” (23)
“The different kinds of suffering are like your child dying in a dream.
Taking confused appearances as real, how tiring!
Therefore, when meeting with adverse conditions,
To see them as confusion is the practice of a bodhisattva.” (24)
Despite appearances and our usual way of thinking, objects that are seemingly “out there” or show up inside the mind do not inherently exist. This is our confusion. They appear only based on the coming together of many causes and conditions. We can easily understand this, Acharya explained, through the examples given by Ngulchu Tokmé. We know that outer appearances, like rainbows, do not truly exist by themselves. Likewise, we know that things we dream during our sleep are not real either. Yet, taking them to be real, and considering them to be pleasant or not, we experience either happiness or suffering, respectively.
While it is somewhat more difficult to see through our confusion in moments of suffering, when we recognize that these external/internal objects do not truly exist, then our mental afflictions associated with them no longer arise. Although the objects appear, they do not exist in the way we habitually think about them as being solid, permanent entities that we like or dislike. Rather, they are like rainbows or dreams. Knowing this, we should not cling to moments of happiness nor feel lost when we suffer.
When Meditating on Emptiness is (Not) Beneficial
Summarizing the meaning of the two verses about our confusion, Acharya explained that no matter whether we experience suffering or happiness, we should not fixate or cling strongly to either experience as both the objects and the associated mental afflictions are based on confusion.
Recalling instructions from the great Kagyü master Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, Acharya said that this does not mean that you do not drink anything when you are thirsty, eat nothing when you are hungry, or do not take medicine when you are sick. In those moments, this practice of seeing through confusion will not benefit you. If we are thirsty, we should drink something. When we are hungry, we should eat something. And when we are sick, we should take medicine. However, when we strongly cling to happiness or feel lost in moments of suffering, then we should recollect this view on emptiness and see through our own confusion. That is the practice of a bodhisattva cultivating ultimate bodhicitta.
Following those concluding words, we dedicated the merit.
Karmapa Khyenno!