{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/tib/genrinpo.htm","path":"bud/tib/genrinpo.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/tib/genrinpo.htm","text":"TURNING THE WHEEL OF THE DHARMA\nGen Rinpoche teaches Bodhicitta, the Mind of Enlightenment\nTeaching given by the Most Venerable Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey\nat the Dhargyey Buddhist Centre, Dunedin, Sunday\n18th December 1994. It has been edited by Ven. Ani S\u00f6nam\nCh\u00f6kyi from the oral translation by Losang Dawa. copywrite\nDhargyey Buddhist Centre.\nToday is the last teaching of 1994 so it is time to review what you\nhave done during the year. If you discover that your year has been\npositive, that you have done lots of practices, learned a lot and\nmeditated a lot, now is the time to appreciate yourself and\ncongratulate yourself on being so successful in spiritual terms, and\nit is also the time to rededicate yourself to practice, study and\nmeditation in the coming year. On the other hand, if you find that\nyou have been irregular in doing practices and coming to classes,\nand that you have not actually done anything much that you have\nmore-or-less wasted a year of this precious human life now is the\ntime to feel regret and sadness about it. But being sad about it is\nnot enough this sadness must also become a force impelling you to\ndo better. So now is the time to determine that you will change for\nthe better in the coming year.\nBodhicitta is like the supreme gold-making elixir,\nFor it transforms the unclean body we have taken\nInto the priceless jewel of a Buddha-Form.\nTherefore firmly seize this Awakening Mind.\nWe need to practise, and practise all the time. The practice\nwe most need to undertake is the most wholesome practice of all\nthe practice in which we work wholeheartedly to develop bodhicitta,\nthe state of mind that sincerely and fervently wants to achieve\nfull enlightenment for the sake of all beings. Nothing is as\nwholesome as concentrating on this mind. It is said that if all the\nBuddhas of the three times were to put their heads together and\ndiscuss what would be most beneficial for suffering beings, giving\nthem happiness in the short-term and in the long-term, they would\nnot find anything more magical than the mind of enlightenment,\nbodhichitta, for it is the panacea of all ills.\nThis mind of bodhicitta is of crucial importance, for it is\nthis mind which determines whether or not our practice carries us to\nthe state of enlightenment. For instance if a person were to go\naway to the mountains, find a suitable cave for meditation and\ncompletely seal themselves inside the cave with the strong\ndetermination not to come out or see anyone, but to dedicate their\nentire life to concerted practice, if this person did not have\nbodhicitta, no matter what practice he or she might do inside the\nsealed cave, nothing much would come of it in terms of achieving\nenlightenment.\nThus we must realize the importance of this precious mind of\nenlightenment. Our efforts to achieve the state of enlightenment\nmust be constant and steady, therefore we need the precious mind of\nenlightenment continuously. Although you are going to have a\nmonth-and-a-half's break for the summer holidays, never have a break\nfrom generating bodhicitta.\nAs Jamg\u00f6n Lama Tsongkapa says, if one has the alchemists'\nelixir one can transmute base metal into gold; in the same way, if\nyou have this precious mind of enlightenment, this bodhicitta, this\njewel of all minds, it will transmute all your small and seemingly\ninsignificant good deeds into a means by which you will reach the\nstate of enlightenment.\nThe great Indian Buddhist master Shantideva says something very\nsimilar: If we have this mind of enlightenment, although at the\nmoment we have a human body that originally came into being from the\nsperm and egg of our parents and is thus basically undesirable,\nimpure and unattractive in itself, the elixir of the mind of\nenlightenment will transform this human body of gross, impure human\nmaterial into the glorious, magnificent, enlightened body of a\nBuddha.\nIf even the thought to relieve\nLiving creatures of merely a headache\nIs a beneficial intention\nEndowed with infinite goodness,\nWhat need is there to mention\nThe wish to dispel their inconceivable misery,\nWishing every single one of them\nTo realize boundless good qualities?\nThe Tibetan master Dzogchen Patrul Rinpoche says, I have been\nto many lamas of all four traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, I have\nstudied the many tenets and views of Buddhist philosophy and\npractice. None of the lamas or the texts say that there is a mind\nthat is superior to the precious mind of enlightenment. They all\nhave the same view with regard to the supreme significance of this mind.\nNormally we understand the esoteric Buddhist practice of tantra\nas a very powerful and speedy way of achieving enlightenment so\npowerful and so speedy that through its means certain people are\nable to achieve the state of enlightenment in one lifetime even\nthough normally it takes millions of eons to travel the path.\nHowever without bodhicitta, even the practice of tantra, so powerful\nand speedy, will not help a person reach the state of enlightenment\nin one lifetime.\nIf you really want to know how to engage in extensive merit-gathering\npractice in a simple way, the secret is bodhicitta. If you manage\nto develop bodhicitta, then even if you do no more than offer one\nbutter-lamp, one candle, that simple practice of offering one light\nwill gather an enormous amount of merit a universe full of merit\nso that however much merit is used up the store of merit will never\nrun out. However if you were to engage in extensive offerings\nwithout bodhicitta offering ten thousand butter lamps for\ninstance the merits would not be as great as in the first case the\nmerit would only be as great as the number of lamps offered.\nDuring Buddha's own time there was an Indian king called\nPrasenajit. On many occasions he invited the Buddha and his\nfollowers, offering them meals for weeks together. On one of these\noccasions the Buddha asked the king, To whom should we dedicate the\nmerits? The king requested the Buddha to say the prayers of\ndedication to whoever had the greatest merits. Assuming that he\nhimself would have the greatest merits because he was offering so\nmuch food, the King thought that the Buddha would dedicate the\nmerits to him. However the king didn't have the most merit. Also\npresent was a beggarly monk called Surata who felt so good about the\nking's generosity in offering food to the Buddha and his followers\nfor weeks and weeks, that he rejoiced sincerely in the king's\ngenerosity and thus, through his pure heart, gathered more merits\nthan the king who had incurred a great deal of expense.\nFor the one who has perfectly seized this mind\nWith the thought never to turn away\nFrom totally liberating\nThe infinite forms of life,\nFrom that time hence,\nEven while asleep or unconcerned,\nA force of merit equal to the sky\nWill perpetually ensue.\nFor two or three weeks the king didn't get any dedications at\nthe end of the meals he was offering to the Buddha and his many\nfollowers. Because it was the custom to say prayers at the end of\nthe meal, and the Buddha and the Sangha didn't dedicate the merits\nto him, the king felt unhappy and had a very long face. One of his\nministers asked him, Lord, is something bothering you? The king\nanswered, Buddha has been here for weeks now. I have been offering\nfood all this time and all this time the beggar Surata has received\nthe dedication. So the minister resorted to a dirty trick. Because\nthe beggar continued to rejoice with a pure heart in the king's\ngenerosity, thus unwittingly gathering more merits, the minister\ndecided to have someone chase the beggar so that he would have no\nchance to feel good about the king's generosity. Because poor\nSurata had to run for his life, he didn't have time to rejoice, and\nthat day it was found that the king had more merits. Thus that day\nhe got the dedication he wanted!\nThere is another small anecdote about this poor beggar,\nSurata. Though he was a beggar in material terms, in spiritual\nterms he was already quite developed. He is said to have offered\none butter lamp with bodhicitta motivation, praying, With this\nbutter lamp may I achieve the state of enlightenment for the sake of\nall sentient beings, and it is said that the butter lamp was so\nbrilliant that when someone tried to put it out they were unable to\ndo so.\nSo with the precious mind of enlightenment, even if you burn\nonly one incense stick and offer the fragrance to the holy objects\nand so on, the merit you will gather will be enormous. If, before\nyou light the incense stick and offer the fragrance, you say to\nyourself, Today I offer this incense stick to the gurus and the\nBuddhas may I achieve the state of enlightenment for the sake of\nall sentient beings, saying it not in a jaded, mechanical way but\nwith full sincerity, you will gather as many merits by burning this\none incense stick as there are sentient beings throughout the\nuniverse.\nThis intention to benefit all beings,\nWhich does not arise in others even for their own sake,\nIs an extraordinary jewel of the mind,\nAnd its birth is an unprecedented wonder.\nNow that I have told you about the need for and importance of\nbodhicitta, about the magical power of bodhicitta, please\ndwell in bodhicitta. Remember this: Bodhicitta is the\nsupreme object of meditation, bodhicitta is the supreme object of\nany practice ... Bodhicitta is supreme for it includes the\ninterests of all sentient beings, which is the greatest of all\npractices. Bodhicitta is called rinchen sem chog, meaning the\nprecious jewel of all minds. It is the core practice the central\npractice of all bodhisattvas. Ask any bodhisattva, What do you\nmainly practise? and you will hear nothing other than, I have tried\nto practise bodhicitta. They will be unanimous in their\nanswer.\nI could keep on reciting the many teachings about bodhicitta\ngiven by the Buddha himself in the Sutras, as well as by Indian\nmasters and scholar practitioners. In his great work\nBodhicharyavatara (A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life)\nShantideva says that if someone simply has the good heart to want to\nrelieve another person of a headache, the merit from that good\nintention cannot be estimated. There is a true story about this.\nIt is the story of Dza.kh\u00e4n Pumo (literally Potter's Daughter,\nthough the person was a man). Dza.khauml;n Pumo had been forbidden\nby his mother from going to distant islands in the high seas to\nfetch jewels for his father's trade. Because her husband had lost\nhis life at sea, Dza.kh\u00e4n Pumo's mother didn't want her son to\nfollow in his father's footsteps since she didn't want to lose the\nonly male remaining in the family. In order to stop him, his mother\ncould do nothing more than lie down on the threshold of their house,\nhoping that out of respect for her he would not jump over her.\nHowever he lost his temper and not only walked over his mother's\nbody but also kicked her head.\nDza.kh\u00e4n Pumo sailed for a long time in the company of\nothers. Eventually, as his mother had feared, the boat capsized.\nThey were washed up on the beach of an island and as he walked along\nthe beach trying to find his way, he came upon an iron house and\nwent in. Inside the house he saw a terrible sight: a person whose\nhead was being drilled by a wheel so that brains and blood were\noozing out. He was suffering tremendously. Dza.kh\u00e4n Pumo\nasked him, What is the reason that you have this terrible\nsuffering? He answered, I think it must be because of the dreadful\nway I behaved towards my mother, walking over her and treating her\ncruelly. Dza.kh\u00e4n Pumo thought to himself, I am in the same\nsituation, driven by karma to suffer the same consequences of the\nsame actions. The moment he realized that he was there due to the\nforce of karma, a voice from above said, May one who is bound be\nliberated and one who is free be bound, and he found that the wheel\nhad left the other man's head and was busily drilling into his own.\nHowever even while he was suffering the agony of being drilled by\nthe wheel, he was able to feel sympathy for others who might be\nundergoing the same suffering, thinking to himself, May all other\npeople who are suffering the same consequence through disobedience\nand walking over their mothers' heads, be free of their suffering:\nmay the sufferings I undergo be sufficient for them too. As soon as\nhe had generated this good-hearted empathy for others, the wheel\njumped off his head.\nI bow down to the body of the one\nIn whom the sacred precious mind is born.\nI seek refuge in that source of joy\nWho brings to happiness even those who harm him.\nDza.kh\u00e4n Pumo, this Potter's Daughter, was in fact the\nhistorical Buddha Shakyamuni in one of his earlier lives, as a\nbodhisattva on the way to enlightenment. The reason he was called\nPotter's Daughter was that before his birth, his mother had had many\nboys but they had all died. Then the parents thought, If we have a\nboy next time, let's try giving him a girl's name. They did so, and\nit worked!\nOne of the ways of generating universal altruism, bodhicitta, is\nequalizing and exchanging self for others. In equalizing, one\nrecognizes that oneself and others are the same; in exchanging self\nfor others one mentally exchanges one's own position for that of\nothers. This very powerful practice of equalizing and exchanging\ncan be traced back to the experience of the Buddha as the\nbodhisattva Dza.kh\u00e4n Pumo.\nIf, like Dza.kh\u00e4n Pumo, you have bodhicitta, although you\nmight be temporarily reborn in a bad state of existence due to some\nunfortunate past action, you won't be there for as long as is\nusually the case you will pay for your bad karma briefly.\nAs Shantideva says, if somebody has the kindness and good heart\nto want to help relieve someone else's headache, and if that\nkindness and goodness of heart gathers great merit, is there any\nneed to say that if someone generates the good heart wanting to\nliberate and to work for the ultimate enlightenment of all sentient\nbeings, that that person will gather much greater merits?\nToday, please meditate on bodhicitta by way of understanding that\nyou yourself and others are the same, and then trying to exchange\nyour cherishing of self for cherishing of others. In other words,\nyour sense of self-cherishing must be displaced by a strong,\nselfless sense of cherishing others. Let such an attitude develop\nin your mind. This is one of the ways of generating bodhicitta,\nuniversal altruism.\nNotes:\nThe verses quoted above are from Chapter One of Shantideva's\nBodhicharyavatara as translated by Stephen Batchelor in A Guide to\nthe Bodhisattva's Way of Life. Gen Rinpoche quoted phrases and\nlines from Bodhicharyavatara many times during the teaching.\nThe Sanskrit word bodhicitta, (in Tibetan jang.chub.kyi\nsem), means literally awakening mind and mind of enlighten-ment.\nIt is sometimes presented in English as altruistic attitude or\nuniversal altruism. It has been described as a mind infused with\nthe aspiration to attain the state of Buddhahood for the sake of\nall sentient beings. This is the entrance to and the motivation\nbehind the Bodhisattva's way of life. (Stephen Batchelor, A Guide\nto the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, page 178.)\nSend comments to: Sonam\nTenzin at sonamt@earthlight.co.nz sonamt@earthlight.co.nz","title":"Genrinpo","type":"page"}