{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/tib/training.htm","path":"bud/tib/training.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/tib/training.htm","text":"Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving-Kindness\nby Chogyam Trungpa\nEdited by Judith L. Lief\nShambhala, Boston & London, 1993\nIntroduction\nIn the mahayana tradition (1) we experience a sense of gentleness toward\nourselves, and a sense of friendliness to others begins to arise. That\nfriendliness or compassion is known in Tibetan as nyingje, which\nliterally means \"noble heart.\" We are willing to commit ourselves to\nworking with all sentient beings. But before we actually launch into that\nproject, we first need a lot of training.\nThe obstacle to becoming a mahayanist is not having enough sympathy\nfor others and for oneself--that is the basic point. And that problem can\nbe dealt with by practical training, which is known as lojong practice,\n\"training the mind.\" That training gives us a path, a way to work with\nour crude and literal and raw and rugged styles, a way to become good\nmahayanists. Ignorant or stupid students of the mahayana sometimes think\nthat they have to glorify themselves; they want to become leaders or\nguides. We have a technique or practice for overcoming that problem. That\npractice is the development of humility, which is connected with training\nthe mind.\nThe basic mahayana vision is to work for the benefit of others and\ncreate a situation that will benefit others. Therefore, you take the\nattitude that you are willing to dedicate yourself to others. When you\ntake that attitude, you begin to realize that others are more important\nthan yourself. Because of that vision of mahayana, because you adopt that\nattitude, and because you actually find that others are more important--\nwith all three of those together, you develop the mahayana practice of\ntraining the mind.\nHinayana discipline is fundamentally one of taming the mind. By\nworking with the various forms of unmindfulness, we begin to become\nthorough and precise, and our discpline becomes good. When we are\nthoroughly tamed by the practice of shamatha discipline, or mindfulness\npractice, as well as trained by vipashyana, or awareness, in how to hear\nthe teachings, we begin to develop a complete understanding of the\ndharma. After that, we also begin to develop a complete understanding of\nhow, in our particular state of being tamed, we can relate with others.\nIn the mahayana we talk more in terms of training the mind. That is\nthe next step. The mind is already tamed, therefore it can be trained. In\nother words, we have been able to domesticate our mind by practicing\nhinayana discipline according to the principles of the buddhadharma.\nHaving domesticated our mind, then we can use it further. It's like the\nstory of capturing a wild cow in the old days. Having captured the cow,\nhaving domesticated it, you find that the cow becomes completely willing\nto relate with its tamers. In fact, the cow likes being domesticated. So\nat this point the cow is part of our household. Once upon a time it\nwasn't that way--I'm sure cows were wild and ferocious before we\ndomesticated them.\nTraining the mind is known as lojong in Tibetan: lo means\n\"intelligence,\" \"mind,\" \"that which can perceive things\"; jong means\n\"training\" or \"processing.\" The teachings of lojong consist of several\nsteps or points of mahayana discipline. The basic discipline of mind\ntraining or lojong is a sevenfold cleaning or processing of one's mind.\nThis book is based on the basic Kadampa text, The Root Text of the\nSeven Points of Training the Mind, and on the commentary by Jamgon\nKongtrul. In Tibetan the commentary is called Changchup Shunglam. Shung\nis the word used for \"government\" and also for \"main body.\" So shung\nmeans \"main governing body.\" For instance, we could call the Tibetan\ngovernment po shung--po meaning \"Tibet,\" shung meaning \"government.\" The\ngovernment that is supposed to run a country is a wide administration\nrather than a narrow administration: it takes care of the country, the\neconomics, politics, and domestic situations. Shung is actually the\nworking basis, the main working stream. Lam means \"path.\" So shunglam is\na general highway, so to speak, a basic process of working toward\nenlightenment. In other words, it is the mahayana approach. It is the\nhighway that everybody goes on, a wide way, extraordinarily wide and\nextraordinarily open. Chanchup means \"enlightenment,\" shung means \"wide\"\nor \"basic,\" and lam means \"path.\" So the title of the commentary is The\nBasic Path Toward Enlightenment.\nThe main text is based on Atisha's teachings on lojong and comes\nfrom the Kadam school of Tibetan Buddhism, which developed around the\ntime of Marpa and Milarepa, when Tibetan monasticism had begun to take\nplace and become deep-rooted. The Kagyupas received these instructions on\nthe proper practice of mahayana Buddhism through Gampopa, who studied\nwith Milarepa as well as with Kadam teachers. There is what is known as\nthe contemplative Kadam school and the intellectual Kadam school. What we\nare doing here is related to the Kadam school's contemplative tradition.\nThe Gelukpas specialized in dialectics and took a more philosophical\napproach to understanding the Kadam tradition.\nThe word kadam has an interesting meaning for us. Ka means\n\"command,\" as when a general gives a pep talk to his or her troops or a\nking gives a command to his ministers. Or we could say \"Logos,\" or\n\"word,\" as in the Christian tradition: \"In the beginning was the Word.\"\nThat kind of Word is a fundamental sacred command, the first that was\nuttered at all! In this case, ka refers to a sense of absolute truth and\na sense of practicality or workability from the individual's point of\nview. Dam is \"oral teaching,\" \"personal teaching,\" that is, a manual on\nhow to handle our life properly. So ka and dam mixed together means that\nall the ka, all the commands or messages, are regarded as practical and\nworkable oral teachings. They are regarded as a practical working basis\nfor students who are involved with contemplative disciplines. That is the\nbasic meaning of kadam.\nThe few lists presented here are very simple ones, nothing\nparticularly philosophical. It is purely what one of the great Kagyu\nteachers regarded as a \"grandmother's fingerpoint.\" When a grandmother\nsays, \"This is the place where I used to go and pick corn, collect wild\nvegetables,\" she usually uses her finger rather than writing on paper or\nusing a map. So it is a grandmother's approach at this point.\nIn my own case, having studied philosophy a lot, the first time\nJamgon Kongtrul suggested that I read and study this book, Changchup\nShunglam, I was relieved that Buddhism was so simple and that you could\nactually do something about it. You can actually practice. You can just\nfollow the book and do as it says, which is extraordinarily powerful and\nsuch a relief. And that sense of simplicity still continues. It is so\nprecious and so direct. I do not know what kind of words to use to\ndescribe it. It is somewhat rugged, but at the same time it is so\nsoothing to read such writing. That is one of the characteristics of\nJamgon Kongtrul--he can change his tone completely, as if he were a\ndifferent author altogether. Whenever he writes on a particular subject,\nhe changes his approach accordingly, and his basic awareness to relate\nwith the audience becomes entirely different.\nJamgon Kongtrul's commentary on the Kadampa slogans is one of the\nbest books I studied in the early stages of my monastic kick. I was going\nto become a simple little monk. I was going to study these things and\nbecome a good little Buddhist and a contemplative-type person. Such a\nthread still holds throughout my life. In spite of complications in my\nlife and organizational problems, I still feel that I am basically a\nsimple, romantic Buddhist who has immense feeling toward the teachers and\nthe teaching.\nWhat has been said is a drop of golden liquid. Each time you read\nsuch a book it confirms again and again that there is something about it\nwhich makes everythin very simple and direct. That makes me immensely\nhappy. I sleep well, too. There is a hard-edged quality of cutting down\npreconceptions and other ego battles that might be involved in presenting\nthe teaching. But at the same time there is always a soft spot of\ndevotion and simplicity in mahayana Buddhism which you can never forget.\nThat is very important. I am not particularly trying to be dramatic. If\nit comes through that way, it's too bad. But I really do feel\nextraordinarily positive about Jamgon Kongtrul and his approach to this\nteaching.\nPoint One\nThe Preliminaries, Which Are a Basis for Dharma Practice\n1 First, train in the preliminaries.\nIn practicing the slogans and in your daily life, you should maintain an\nawareness of [1] the preciousness of human life and the particular good\nfortune of life in an environment in which you can hear the teachings of\nbuddhadharma; [2] the reality of death, that it comes suddenly and\nwithout warning; [3] the entrapment of karma--that whatever you do,\nwhether virtuous or not, only further entraps you in the chain of cause\nand effect; and [4] the intensity and inevitability of suffering for\nyourself and for all sentient beings. This is called \"taking an attitude\nof the four reminders.\"\nWith that attitude as a base, you should call upon your guru with\ndevotion, inviting into yourself the atmosphere of sanity inspired by his\nor her example, and vowing to cut the roots of further ignorance and\nsuffering. This ties in very closely with the notion of maitri, or\nloving-kindness. In the traditional analogy of one's spiritual path, the\nonly pure loving object seems to be somebody who can show you the path.\nYou could have a loving relationship with your parents, relatives, and so\nforth, but there are still problems with that: your neurosis goes along\nwith it. A pure love affair can only take place with one's teacher. So\nthat ideal sympathetic object is used as a starting point, a way of\ndeveloping a relationship beyond your own neurosis. Particularly in the\nmahayana, you relate to the teacher as someone who cheers you up from\ndepression and brings you down from excitement, a kind of moderator\nprinciple. The teacher is regarded as important from that point of view.\nThis slogan establishes the contrast between samsara--the epitome of\npain, imprisonment, and insanity--and the root guru--the embodiment of\nopenness, freedom, and sanity--as the fundamental basis for all practice.\nAs such, it is heavily influenced by the vajrayana tradition.\nPoint Two\nThe Main Practice, Which is Training in Bodhichitta\nUltimate and Relative Bodhichitta\nUltimate Bodhichitta and the Paramita of Generosity\nThe ultimate or absolute bodhichitta principle is based on developing the\nparamita of generosity, which is symbolized by a wish-fulfilling jewel.\nThe Tibetan word for generosity, jinpa, means \"giving,\" \"opening,\" or\n\"parting.\" So the notion of generosity means not holding back but giving\nconstantly. Generosity is self-existing openness, complete openness. You\nare no longer subject to cultivating your own scheme or project. And the\nbest way to open yourself up is to make friends with yourself and with\nothers.\nTraditionally, there are three types of generosity. The first one is\nordinary generosity, giving material goods or providing comfortable\nsituations for others. The second one is the gift of fearlessness. You\nreassure others and teach them that they don't have to feel completely\ntormented and freaked out about their existence. You help them to see\nthat there is basic goodness and spiritual practice, that there is a way\nfor them to sustain their lives. That is the gift of fearlessness. The\nthird type of generosity is the gift of dharma. You show others that\nthere is a path that consists of discipline, meditation, and intellect or\nknowledge. Through all three types of generosity, you can open up other\npeople's minds. In that way their closedness, wretchedness, and small\nthinking can be turned into a larger vision.\nThat is the basic vision of mahayana altogether: to let people think\nbigger, think greater. We can afford to open ourselves and join the rest\nof the world with a sense of tremendous generosity, tremendous goodness,\nand tremendous richness. The more we give, the more we gain--although\nwhat we might gain should not be our reason for giving. Rather, the more\nwe give, the more we are inspired to give constantly. And the gaining\nprocess happens naturally, automatically, always.\nThe opposite of generosity is stinginess, holding back--having a\npoverty mentality, basically speaking. The basic principle of the\nultimate bodhichitta slogans is to rest in the eighth consciousness, or\nalaya, and not follow our discursive thoughts. Alaya is a Sanskrit word\nmeaning \"basis,\" or sometimes \"abode\" or \"home,\" as in Himalaya, \"abode\nof snow.\" So it has that idea of a vast range. It is the fundamental\nstate of consciousness, before it is divided into \"I\" and \"other,\" or\ninto the various emotions. It is the basic ground where things are\nprocessed, where things exist. In order to rest in the nature of alaya,\nyou need to go beyond your poverty attitude and realize that your alaya\nis as good as anyone else's alaya. You have a sense of richness and self-\nsufficiency. You can do it, and you can afford to give out as well. And\nthe ultimate bodhichitta slogans [slogans 2-6] are the basic points of\nreference through which we are going to familiarize ourselves with\nultimate bodhichitta.\nUltimate bodhichitta is similar to the absolute shunyata principle.\nAnd whenever there is the absolute shunyata principle, we have to have a\nbasic understanding of absolute compassion at the same time. Shunyata\nliterally means \"openness\" or \"emptiness.\" Shunyata is basically\nunderstanding nonexistence. When you begin realizing nonexistence, then\nyou can afford to be more compassionate, more giving. A problem is that\nusually we would like to hold on to our territory and fixate on that\nparticular ground. Once we begin to fixate on that ground, we have no way\nto give. Understanding shunyata means that we begin to realize that there\nis no ground to get, that we are ultimately free, nonaggressive, open. We\nrealize that we are actually nonexistent ourselves. We are not--no,\nrather. (1) Then we can give. We have lots to gain and nothing to lose at\nthat point. It is very basic.\nCompassion is based on some sense of \"soft spot\" in us. It is as if\nwe had a pimple on our body that was very sore--so sore that we do not\nwant to rub it or scratch it. During our shower we do not want to rub too\nmuch soap over it because it hurts. There is a sore point or soft spot\nwhich happens to be painful to rub, painful to put hot or cold water\nover.\nThat sore spot on our body is an analogy for compassion. Why?\nBecause even in the midst of immense aggression, insensitivity in our\nlife, or laziness, we always have a soft spot, some point we can\ncultivate--or at least not bruise. Every human being has that kind of\nbasic sore spot, including animals. Whether we are crazy, dull,\naggressive, ego-tripping, whatever we might be, there is still that sore\nspot taking place in us. An open wound, which might be a more vivid\nanalogy, is always there. That open wound is usually very inconvenient\nand problematic. We don't like it. We would like to be tough. We would\nlike to fight, to come out strong, so we do not have to defend any aspect\nof ourselves. We would like to attack our enemy on the spot, single-\nhandedly. We would like to lay our trips on everybody completely and\nproperly, so that we have nothing to hide. That way, if somebody decides\nto hit us back, we are not wounded. And hopefully, nobody will hit us on\nthat sore spot, that wound that exists in us. Our basic makeup, the basic\nconstituents of our mind, are based on passion and compassion at the same\ntime. But however confused we might be, however much of a cosmic monster\nwe might be, still there is an open wound or sore spot in us always.\nThere always will be a sore spot.\nSometimes people translate that sore spot or open wound as\n\"religious conviction\" or \"mystical experience.\" But let us give that up.\nIt has nothing to do with Buddhism, nothing to do with Christianity, and\nmoreover, nothing to do with anything else at all. It is just an open\nwound, a very simple open wound. That is very nice--at least we are\naccessible somewhere. We are not completely covered with a suit of armor\nall the time. We have a sore spot somewhere. Such a relief! Thank earth!\nBecause of that particular sore spot, even if we are a cosmic\nmonster--Mussolini, Mao Tse-tung, or Hitler--we can still fall in love.\nWe can still appreciate beauty, art, poetry, or music. The rest of us\ncould be covered with iron cast shields, but some sore spot always exists\nin us, which is fantastic. That sore spot is known as embryonic\ncompassion, potential compassion. At least we have some kind of gap, some\ndiscrepancy in our state of being which allows basic sanity to shine\nthrough.\nOur level of sanity could be very primitive. Our sore spot could be\njust purely the love of tortillas or the love of curries. But that's good\nenough. We have some kind of opening. It doesn't matter what it is love\nof as long as there is a sore spot, an open wound. That's good. That is\nwhere all the germs could get in and begin to impregnate and take\npossession of us and influence our system. And that is precisely how the\ncompassionate attitude supposedly takes place.\nNot only that, but there is also an inner wound, which is called\ntathagatagarbha, or buddha nature. Tathagatagarbha is like a heart that\nis sliced and bruised by wisdom and compassion. When the external wound\nand the internal wound begin to meet and communicate, then we begin to\nrealize that our whole being is made out of one complete sore spot\naltogether, which is called \"bodhisattva fever.\" That vulnerability is\ncompassion. We really have no way to defend ourselves anymore at all. A\ngigantic cosmic wound is all over the place--an inward wound and an\nexternal wound at the same time. Both are sensitive to cold air, hot air,\nand little disturbances of atmosphere which begin to affect us both\ninwardly and outwardly. It is the living flame of love, if you would like\nto call it that. But we should be very careful what we say about love.\nWhat is love? Do we know love? It is a vague word. In this case we are\nnot even calling it love. Nobody before puberty would have any sense of\nsexuality or of love affairs. Likewise, since we haven't broken through\nto understand what our soft spot is all about, we cannot talk about love,\nwe can only talk about passion. It sounds fantastic, but it actually\ndoesn't say as much as love, which is very heavy. Compassion is a kind of\npassion, com-passion, which is easy to work with.\nThere is a slit in our skin, a wound. It's very harsh treatment, in\nsome sense; but on the other hand, it's very gentle. The intention is\ngentle, but the practice is very harsh. By combining the intention and\nthe practice, you ae being \"harshed,\" and also you are being \"gentled,\"\nso to speak--both together. That makes you into a bodhisattva. You have\nto go through that kind of process. You have to jump into the blender. It\nis necessary for you to do that. Just jump into the blender and work with\nit. Then you will begin to feel that you are swimming in the blender. You\nmight even enjoy it a little bit, after you have been processed. So an\nactual understanding of ultimate bodhichitta only comes from compassion.\nIn other words, a purely logical, professional, or scientific conclusion\ndoesn't bring you to that. The five ultimate bodhichitta slogans are\nsteps toward a compassionate approach.\nA lot of you seemingly, very shockingly, are not particularly\ncompassionate. You are not saving your grandma from drowning and you are\nnot saving your pet dog from getting killed. Therefore, we have to go\nthrough this subject of compassion. Compassion is a very, very large\nsubject, an extraordinarily large subject, which includes how to be\ncompassionate. And actually, ultimate bodhichitta is preparation for\nrelative bodhichitta. Before we cultivate compassion, we first need to\nunderstand how to be properly. How to love your grandma or how to love\nyour flea or your mosquito--that comes later. The relative aspect of\ncompassion comes much later. If we do not have an understanding of\nultimate bodhichitta, then we do not have any understanding of the actual\nworking basis of being compassionate and kind to somebody. We might just\njoin the Red Cross and make nuisances of ourselves and create further\ngarhage.\nAccording to the mahayana tradition, we are told that we can\nactually arouse twofold bodhichitta: relative bodhichitta and ultimate\nbodhichitta. We could arouse both of them. Then, having aroused\nbodhichitta, we can continue further and and practice according to the\nbodhisattva's example. We can be active bodhisattvas.\nIn order to arouse absolute or ultimate bodhichitta, we have to join\nshamatha and vipashyana together. Having developed the basic precision of\nshamatha and the total awareness of vipashyana, we put them together so\nthat they cover the whole of our existence--our behavior patterns and our\ndaily life--everything. In that way, in both meditation and\npostmeditation practice, mindfulness and awareness are happening\nsimultaneously, all the time. Whether we are sleeping or awake, eating or\nwandering, precision and awareness are taking place all the time. That is\nquite a delightful experience.\nBeyond that delight, we also tend to develop a sense of friendliness\nto everything. The early level of irritation and aggression has been\nprocessed through, so to speak, by mindfulness and awareness. There is\ninstead a notion of basic goodness, which is described in the Kadam texts\nas the natural virtue of alaya. This is an important point for us to\nunderstand. Alaya is the fundamental state of existence, or\nconsciousness, before it is divided into \"I\" and \"other,\" or into the\nvarious emotions. It is the basic ground where things are processed,\nwhere things exist. And its basic state, or natural style, is goodness.\nIt is very benevolent. There is a basic state of existence that is\nfundamentally good and that we can rely on. There is room to relax, room\nto open ourselves up. We can make friends with ourselves and with others.\nThat is fundamental virtue or basic goodness, and it is the basis of the\npossibility of absolute bodhichitta.\nOnce we have been inspired by the precision of shamatha and the\nwakefulness of vipashyana, we find that there is room, which gives us the\npossibility of total naivete, in the positive sense. The Tibetan for\nnaivete is pak-yang, which means \"carefree\" or \"let loose.\" We can be\ncarefree with our basic goodness. We do not have to scrutinize or\ninvestigate wholeheartedly to make sure that there are no mosquitoes or\neggs inside our alaya. The basic goodness of alaya can be cultivated and\nconnected with quite naturally, in a pak-yang way. We can develop a sense\nof relaxation and release from torment--from this-and-that altogether.\nRelative Bodhichitta and the Paramita of Discipline\nThat brings us to the next stage. Again, instead of remaining at a\ntheoretical, conceptual level alone, we return to the most practical\nlevel. In the mahayana our main concern is how to awaken ourselves. We\nbegin to realize that we are not as dangerous as we had thought. We\ndevelop some notion of kindness, or maitri, and having developed maitri\nwe begin to switch into karuna, or compassion.\nThe development of relative bodhichitta is connected with the\nparamita of discipline. It has been said that if you don't have\ndiscipline, it is like trying to walk without any legs. You cannot attain\nliberation without discipline. Discipline in Tibetan is tsultrim: tsul\nmeans \"proper,\" and trim means \"discipline\" or \"obeying the rules,\"\nliterally speaking. So trim could be translated as \"rule\" or \"justice.\"\nThe basic notion of tsultrim goes beyond giving alone; it means having\ngood conduct. It also means having some sense of passionlessness and\nnonterritoriality. All of that is very much connected with relative\nbodhichitta.\nRelative bodhichitta comes from the simple and basic experience of\nrealizing that you could have a tender heart in any situation. Even the\nmost vicious animals have a tender heart in taking care of their young,\nor for that matter, in taking care of themselves. From our basic training\nin shamatha-vipashyana, we begin to realize our basic goodness and to\nlet go with that. We begin to rest in the nature of alaya--not caring and\nbeing very naive and ordinary, casual, in some sense. When we let\nourselves go, we begin to have a feeling of good existence in ourselves.\nThat could be regarded as the very ordinary and trivial concept of having\na good time. Nonetheless, when we have good intentions toward ourselves,\nit is not because we are trying to achieve anything--we are just trying\nto be ourselves. As they say, we could come as we are. At that point we\nhave a natural sense that we can afford to give ourselves freedom. We can\nafford to relax. We can afford to treat ourselves better, trust ourselves\nmore, and let ourselves feel good. The basic goodness of alaya is always\nthere. It is that sense of healthiness and cheerfulness and naivete that\nbrings us to the realization of relative bodhichitta.\nRelative bodhichitta is related with how we start to learn to love\neach other and ourselves. That seems to be the basic point. It's very\ndifficult for us to learn to love. It would be possible for us to love if\nan object of fascination were presented to us or if there were some kind\nof dream or promise presented. Maybe then we could learn to love. But it\nis very hard for us to learn to love if it means purely giving love\nwithout expecting anything in return. It is very difficult to do that.\nWhen we decide to love somebody, we usually expect that person to fulfill\nour desires and conform to our hero worship. If our expectations can be\nfulfilled, we can fall in love, ideally. So in most of our love affairs,\nwhat usually happens is that our love is absolutely conditional. It is\nmore of a business deal than actual love. We have no idea how to\ncommunicate a sense of warmth. When we do begin to communicate a sense of\nwarmth to somebody, it makes us very uptight. And when the object of our\nlove tries to cheer us up, it becomes an insult.\nThis is a very aggression-oriented approach. In the mahayana,\nparticularly in the contemplative tradition, love and affection are\nlargely based on free love, open love which does not ask anything in\nreturn. It is a mutual dance. Even if during the dance you step on each\nother's toes, it is not regarded as problematic or an insult. We do not\nhave to get on our high horse or be touchy about that. To learn to love,\nto learn to open, is one of the hardest things for all of us. Yet we are\nconditioned by passion all the time. Since we are in the human realm, our\nmain focus or characteristic is passion and lust, all the time. So what\nthe mahayana teachings are based on is the idea of communication,\nopenness, and being without expectations.\nWhen we begin to realize that the nature of phenomena is free from\nconcept, empty by itself, that the chairs and tables and rugs and\ncurtains are no longer in the way, then we can expand our notion of love\ninfinitely. There is nothing in the way. The very purpose of discussing\nthe nature of shunyata is to provide us that emptiness, so that we could\nfill the whole of space with a sense of affection--love without\nexpectation, without demand, without possession. That is one of the most\npowerful things that the mahayana has to contribute.\nIn contrast, hinayana practitioners are very keen on the path of\nindividual salvation, not causing harm to others. They are reasonable and\ngood-thinking and very polite people. But how can you be really polite\nand keep smiling twenty-four hours a day on the basis of individual\nsalvation alone, without doing anything for others? You are doing\neverything for yourself all the time, even if you are being kind and nice\nand polite. That's very hard to do. At the mahayana level, the sense of\naffection and love has a lot of room--immense room, openness, and daring.\nThere is no time to come out clean, particularly, as long as you generate\naffection.\nThe relationship between a mother and child is the foremost analogy\nused in developing relative bodhichitta practice. According to the\nmedieval Indian and Tibetan traditions, the traditional way of\ncultivating relative bodhichitta is to choose your mother as the first\nexample of someone you feel soft toward. Traditionally, you feel warm and\nkind toward your mother. In modern society, there might be a problem with\nthat. However, you could go back to the medieval idea of the mother\nprinciple. You could appreciate her way of sacrificing her own comfort\nfor you. You could remember how she used to wake up in the middle of the\nnight if you cried, how she used to feed you and change your diapers, and\nall the rest of it. You could remember how you acted as the ruler of your\nlittle household, how your mother became your slave. Whenever you cried,\nshe would jump up whether she liked it or not in order to see what was\ngoing on with you. Your mother actually did that. And when you were\nolder, she was very concerned about your security and your education and\nso forth. So in order to welcome relative bodhichitta, relative wakeful\ngentleness, we use our mother as an example, as our pilot light, so to\nspeak. We think about her and how much she sacrificed for us. Her\nkindness is the perfect example of making others more important than\nyourself.\nReflecting on your own mother is the preliminary to relative\nbodhichitta practice. You should regard that as your starting point. You\nmight be a completely angry person and have a grudge against the entire\nuniverse. You might be a completely frustrated person. But you could\nstill reflect back on your childhood and think of how nice your mother\nwas to you. You could think of that, in spite of your aggression and your\nresentment. You could remember that there was a time when somebody\nsacrificed her life for your life, and brought you up to be the person\nyou are now.\nThe idea of relative bodhichitta in this case is very primitive, in\nsome sense. On the other hand, it is also very enlightening, as\nbodhichitta should be. Although you might be a completely angry person,\nyou cannot say that in your entire life nobody helped you. Somebody has\nbeen kind to you and sacrificed himself or herself for you. Otherwise, if\nsomebody hadn't brought you up, you wouldn't be here as an adult. You\ncould realize that it wasn't just out of obligation but out of her\ngenuineness that your mother brought you up and took care of you when you\nwere helpless. And because of that you are here. That kind of compassion\nis very literal and very straightforward.\nWith that understanding, we can begin to extend our sense of\nnonaggression and nonfrustration and nonanger and nonresentment beyond\nsimply appreciating our mother. This is connected with the paramita of\ndiscipline, which is free from passion and has to do with giving in.\nTraditionally, we use our mother as an example, and then we extend beyond\nthat to our friends and to other people generally. Finally, we even try\nto feel better toward our enemies, toward people we don't like. So we try\nto extend that sense of gentleness, softness, and gratitude. We are not\nparticularly talking about the Christian concept of charity, we are\ntalking about how to make ourselves soft and reasonable. We are talking\nabout how we can experience a sense of gratitude toward anybody at all,\nstarting with our mother and going beyond that to include our father as\nwell--and so forth until we include the rest of the world. So in the end\nwe can begin to feel sympathy even toward our bedbugs and mosquitoes.\nThe starting point of relative bodhichitta practice is realizing\nthat others could actually be more important than ourselves. Other people\nmight provide us with constant problems, but we could still be kind to\nthem. According to the logic of relative bodhichitta, we should feel that\nwe are less important abd others are more important--any others are more\nimportant! Doing so, we begin to feel as though a tremendous burden has\nbeen taken off our shoulders. Finally, we realize that there is room to\ngive love and affection elsewhere, to more than just this thing called\n\"me\" all the time. \"I am this, I am that, I am hungry, I am tired, I am\nblah-blah-blah.\" We could consider others. From that point of view, the\nrelative bodhichitta principle is quite simple and ordinary. We could\ntake care of others. We could actually be patient enough to develop\nselfless service to others. And the relative bodhichitta slogans [slogans\n7-10] are directions as to how to develop relative bodhichitta in a very\nsimple manner, a grandmother's approach to reality, so to speak.\nUltimate Bodhichitta Slogans\n2 Regard all dharmas as dreams.\nThis slogan is an expression of compassion and openness. It means that\nwhatever you experience in your life--pain, pleasure, happiness, sadness,\ngrossness, refinement, sophistication, crudeness, heat, cold, or\nwhatever--is purely memory. The actual discipline or practice of the\nbodhisattva tradition is to regard whatever occurs as a phantom. Nothing\never happens. But because nothing happens, everything happens. But in\nthis case, although everything is just a thought in your mind, a lot of\nunderlying percolation takes place. That \"nothing happening\" is the\nexperience of openness, and that percolation is the experience of\ncompassion.\nYou can experience that dreamlike quality by relating with sitting\nmeditation practice. When you are reflecting on your breath, suddenly\ndiscursive thoughts begin to arise: you begin to see things, to hear\nthings, and to feel things. But all those perceptions are none other than\nyour own mental creation. In the same way, you can see that your hate for\nyour enemy, your love for your friends, and your attitudes toward money,\nfood, and wealth are all a part of discursive thought.\nRegarding things as dreams does not mean that you become fuzzy and\nwoolly, that everything has an edge of sleepiness about it. You might\nactually have a good dream, vivid and graphic. Regarding dharmas as\ndreams means that although you might think that things are very solid,\nthe way you perceive them is soft and dreamlike. For instance, if you\nhave participated in group meditation practice, your memory of your\nmeditation cushion and the person who sat in front of you is very vivid,\nas is your memory of your food and the sound of the gong and the bed\nthat you sleep in. But none of those situations is regarded as completely\ninvincible and solid and tough. Everything is shifty.\nThings have a dreamlike quality. But at the same time the production\nof your mind is quite vivid. If you didn't have a mind, you wouldn't be\nable to perceive anything at all. Because you have a mind, you perceive\nthings. Therefore, what you perceive is a product of your mind, using\nyour sense organs as channels for the sense perceptions.\n3 Examine the nature of unborn awareness.\nLook at your basic mind, just simple awareness which is not divided into\nsections, the thinking process that exists within you. Just look at that,\nsee that. Examining does not mean analyzing. It is just viewing things as\nthey are, in the ordinary sense.\nThe reason our mind is known as unborn awareness is that we have no\nidea of its history. We have no idea where this mind, our crazy mind,\nbegan in the beginning. It has no shape, no color, no particular portrait\nor characteristics. It usually flickers on and off, off and on, all the\ntime. Sometimes it is hibernating, sometimes it is all over the place.\nLook at your mind. That is a part of ultimate bodhichitta training or\ndiscipline. Our mind fluctuates constantly, back and forth, forth and\nback. Look at that, just look at that!\nYou could get caught up in the fascination of regarding all dharmas\nas dreams and perpetuate unnecessary visions and fantasies of all kinds.\nTherefore it is very important to get to this next slogan, \"Examine the\nnature of unborn awareness.\" When you look beyond the perceptual level\nalone, when you look at your own mind (which you cannot actually do, but\nyou pretend to do), you find that there is nothing there. You begin to\nrealize that there is nothing to hold on to. Mind is unborn. But at the\nsame time, it is awareness, because you still perceive things. Therefore,\nyou should contemplate that by seeing who is actually perceiving dharmas\nas dreams.\nIf you look further and further, at your mind's root, its base, you\nwill find that it has no color and no shape. Your mind is, basically\nspeaking, somewhat blank. There is nothing to it. We are beginning to\ncultivate a kind of shunyata possibility; although in this case that\npossibility is quite primitive, in the sense of simplicity and\nworkability. When we look at the root, when we try to find out why we see\nthings, why we hear sounds, why we feel, and why we smell--if we look\nbeyond that and beyond that--we find a kind of blankness.\nThat blankness is connected with mindfulness. To begin with, you are\nmindful of some thing: you are mindful of yourself, you are mindful of\nyour atmosphere, and you are mindful of your breath. But if you look at\nwhy you are mindful, beyond what you are mindful of, you begin to find\nthat there is no root. Everything begins to dissolve. That is the idea of\nexamining the nature of unborn awareness.\n4 Self-liberate even the antidote.\nLooking at our basic mind, we begin to develop a twist of logic. We say,\n\"Well, if nothing has any root, why bother? What's the point of doing\nthis at all? Why don't we just believe that there's no root behind the\nwhole thing?\" At that point the next slogan, \"Self-liberate even the\nantidote,\" is very helpful. The antidote is the realization that our\ndiscursive thoughts have no origin. That realization helps a lot; it\nbecomes an antidote or a helpful suggestion. But we need to go beyond\nthat antidote. We should not hang on to the so-whatness of it, the\nnaivete of it.\nThe idea of [that] antidote is that everything is empty, so that you\nhave nothing to care about. You have an occasional glimpse in your mind\nthat nothing is existent. And because of the nature of that shunyata\nexperience, whether anything great or small comes up, nothing really\nmatters very much. It is like a backslapping joke in which everything is\ngoing to be hoo-ha, yuk-yuk-yuk. Nothing is going to matter very much, so\nlet it go. All is shunyata, so who cares? You can murder, you can\nmeditate, you can perform art, you can do all kinds of things--everything\nis meditation, whatever you do. But there is something very tricky about\nthe whole approach. That dwelling on emptiness is a misinterpretation,\ncalled the \"poison of shunyata.\"\nSome people say that they do not have to sit and meditate, because\nthey have always \"understood.\" But that is very tricky. I have been\ntrying very hard to fight such people. I never trust them at all--unless\nthey actually sit and practice. You cannot split hairs by saying that you\nmight be fishing in a Rocky Mountain spring and still meditating away;\nyou might be driving your Porsche and meditating away; you might be\nwashing dishes (which is more legitimate in some sense) and meditating\naway. That may be a genuine way of doing things, but it still feels very\nsuspicious.\nAntidotes are any notion that we can do what we want and that as\nlong as we are meditative, everything is going to be fine. The text says\nto self-liberate even the antidote, the seeming antidote. We may regard\ngoing to the movies every minute, every day, every evening as our\nmeditation, or watching television, or grooming our horse, feeding our\ndog, taking a long walk in the woods. There are endless possibilities\nlike that in the Occidental tradition, or for that matter in the theistic\ntradition.\nThe theistic tradition talks about meditation and contemplation as a\nfantastic thing to do. The popular notion of God is that he created the\nworld: the woods were made by God, the castle ruins were created by God,\nand the ocean was made by God. So we could swim and meditate or we could\nlie on the beach made by God and have a fantastic time. Such theistic\nnature worship has become a problem. We have so many holiday makers,\nnature worshipers, so many hunters.\nIn Scotland, at the Samye Ling meditation center, where I was\nteaching, there was a very friendly neighbor from Birmingham, an\nindustrial town, who always came up there on weekends to have a nice\ntime. Occasionally he would drop into our meditation hall and sit with\nus, and he would say, \"Well, it's nice you people are meditating, but I\nfeel much better if I walk out in the woods with my gun and shoot\nanimals. I feel very meditative walking through the woods and listening\nto the sharp, subtle sounds of animals jumping forth, and I can shoot at\nthem. I feel I am doing something worthwhile at the same time. I can\nbring back venison, cook it, and feed my family. I feel good about that.\"\nThe whole point of this slogan is that antidotes of any kind, or for\nthat matter occupational therapies of any kind, are not regarded as\nappropriate things to do. We are not particularly seeking enlightenment\nor the simple experience of tranquility--we are trying to get over our\ndeception.\nNotes\nIntroduction\n1. Hinayana, mahayana, and vajrayana refer to the three stages of an\nindividual's practice according to Tibetan Buddhism, not to the different\nschools of Buddhist practice.\nPoint Two\n1. The word not is a conditional one, as it is usually linked with an\nobject--not this or not that; the word no is unconditional: simply, No!\n--------------------------------------------------------------------\nDISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT\nTITLE OF WORK: Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving-Kindness\n(Sneak Preview - Intro, Chapter 1 and Chapter 2)\nFILENAME: TRAINING.ZIP\nAUTHOR: Chogyam Trungpa\nPUBLISHER'S ADDRESS: Shambhala Publications, Inc.\nP.O. 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