His Eminence the Third Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche,
Karma Lodrö Chökyi Senge
Instructions on
The Seven Points of Mind Training by Lord Atisha
Introduction
I am very happy to be here and would like to thank the Berkeley Dharmadhatu/Shambhala Center for providing the opportunity to make this connection with you. It is a great pleasure for me to be here and to talk to you.
Generally speaking, at a Dharma seminar, both the teacher and the students should generate the pure motivation of the altruistic mind of Bodhicitta. The purpose of presenting and receiving the teachings is to benefit all living beings. So, please generate the altruistic mind of awakening.
From the three levels of teachings that Lord Buddha presented, the subject of this seminar is Lo-jong in Tibetan, which means “mind training,” and accords with the great Bodhisattva vehicle. The Bodhisattvayana is also known as Mahayana. Maha means “great” and is translated into Tibetan to mean “heightened.” The weight of what is lifted and heightened is in no way light or small. Now, Mahayana should not be seen as greater than Hinayana, i.e., Hinayana should not be considered inferior. All vehicles teach the means to overcome delusiveness and lead to enlightenment.
But why is the subject of this seminar exclusive to the Mahayana? The attitude is different than that of a Hinayana practitioner. The Hinayana teaches its disciples to strive for the peace of personal enlightenment, whereas the Mahayana teaches its disciples the means by which they can attain enlightenment for the benefit and welfare of the limitless number of sentient beings that live in the vast universe, and this is why the motivation of a Mahayana practitioner is great and vast, the connotation of the term maha. Since the aim of a Mahayana practitioner is not based on self-interest, one’s own liberation as well as that of all living beings is faster and more profound due to the selfless motivation. The cultivation of Bodhicitta, “the awakened attitude” that is specific to the Bodhisattvayana is the wellspring of achieving enlightenment. Bodhicitta is genuine and sincere loving kindness and compassion for all living beings.
The benefits of generating and cultivating Bodhicitta are precisely dealt with in the Bodhicharyavatara that was written by Shantideva, who said that Bodhicitta is inconceivable. He compared anything carried out in the absence of Bodhicitta with a water-tree, the literal term in Tibetan for “banana tree,” which can only bring forth fruit once in its lifetime. Its trunk consists of layers and layers of bark, but it has no roots to enable it to produce a second harvest of fruit. Shantideva compared anything done with Bodhicitta with a tree that has plentiful harvest and bears fruits year after year. Anything virtuous done without Bodhicitta is just as limited as a banana tree, whereas anything good done with Bodhicitta is limitless. Therefore, the path of Mahayana is the ground that leads to enlightenment attained when one has accomplished Tantrayana, the foundation being Hinayana, i.e., Sutrayana. This is the reason why Bodhicitta is essential in our practice. Developing Bodhicitta doesn’t mean cultivating something new or foreign to oneself, since it is always present within every living being. Developing Bodhicitta means awakening that which is already present within each and everyone without exception.
It is important to generate and develop loving kindness and compassion that everyone already has. One shouldn’t think it is something that needs to be acquired, that it is foreign to oneself, or that it is difficult to cultivate. It is quite easy to acknowledge and appreciate that loving kindness and compassion are the true nature of all living beings and that conflicting emotions are fleeting instances. If the conflicting emotion of anger arises in one’s mind, for example, it is quite evident that one loses control of oneself and reacts without mindfulness and awareness. This is what is referred to as being unbalanced and bewildered - and it certainly is not one’s true nature.
Let me repeat this in English so that there are no misunderstandings: When people are angry, they are not aware of what is actually taking place in their minds and this state is not the true nature of their mind. Nobody would every claim to enjoy being angry after having found the chance to look at it after it has passed, the first proof that mind’s true nature is Bodhicitta. Everybody somehow feels guilty, sad, or ashamed in some way or another after anger has passed, the second proof that mind’s true nature is Bodhicitta. Anybody who observes another person’s anger feels uncomfortable and tries to avoid such people. Nobody enjoys the company of angry people, the third proof that mind’s true nature is Bodhicitta.
Looking at it from the other side: It is evident that people who are kind and compassionate naturally cause others to be happy and are gentle towards themselves, too, whereas anger makes people tremble and shake. Anyone who observes a kind and gentle person naturally experiences kindness and gentleness. Others enjoy their company and like being together with them, which proves that the nature of all living beings is loving kindness and compassion since they enjoy it, feel well, and are happy. There are many names to describe the true nature of all living beings: Buddha nature, Tathagatagarba, and Bodhicitta.
Again, Bodhicitta is the nature of everybody’s mind. One fails to recognize it due to being overwhelmed by emotional reactions and thus focusing one’s attention on a self and as a result on other things that one feels are different than and in opposition to the self. As long as one fails to recognize one’s true nature, it is necessary to engage in practices like mind training in order to generate and increase Bodhicitta. Mind training is the means to experience the true nature of one’s very own mind.
The Mind Training Lineage
There are many different mind training practices. I will discuss The Seven Points of Mind Training as Lord Atisha taught them. He received the precious transmission of mind training from the great master Serlingpa. The Kadampas continue transmitting the practices up to the present day. The great Kadampa Master Chekawa explained these instructions precisely, so we also pay homage to him in The Prayer to the Mind Training Lineage.
Soothing the Pain of Faith. A Prayer to the Mind Training Lineage
by Jamgon Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye
“Glorious Root Guru, the Precious One,
sitting upon my head on a lotus-and-moon seat, with your great kindness, please take care of me.
Grant the mastery of the enlightened form, speech, and mind.
I pray to Shakyamuni and his regent Maitreya,
to the noble Asanga and the learned Vasubandhu, to the two Sena and Gunamitra, and to Simbhadra.
Bless me with the full development of love, compassion, and Bodhicitta, and the ability to dismiss and dispel.
I pray to Gang-pel and the greater and lesser Kusali,
to Dharmakirti and Lord Atisha, to Drom-tön, Potowa, and Sharawa, and to the contemplative Chekawa.
I pray to Chilbupa and Guru Özer, to Lha-ding, Jang-chub Bum, and Kung-gyaltsen, to Yonten-pal and the great Pandit Dewa-pal, and to Shon-nu, who proclaimed the four teachings.
I pray to the Bodhisattva Sonam Trakpa, to Tok-me, Zangpo, Yonten Lodru, and Sho-nu Lodru,
to the great Pandit Shakya Chokden, and to Kunga Chokdrup and Jetsun Drolchok.
I pray to Lung-rik Gyatso and all-knowing Taranatha, to the two regents Rinchen Gyatso and Yeshe Gyatso,
to the contemplative Yongen Gon, to Gonpo Paljor.
I pray to Tsewang Norbu and Trin-le Shingta, to Situ Tenpa Nyingje and the Siddha Lodru,
to Karma Lhatong, Shenpen Özer, and Lodru Taye.
I pray to Kachab Dorje and Shiwa Nyingpo, to Padma Wangchuk and Khyentse Özer,
to Norbu Dondrub, whose experience and understanding were complete, and to all the Root and Lineage Gurus.
In your form is united the compassion of the Buddha and his sons.
You are the incomparable Lord of Dharma with whom any relationship is meaningful.
My Root Guru, you embody the life-breath of this Lineage.
I pray to you from the depths of my heart,
Revulsion and renunciation form our foundation.
Supreme Bodhicitta in its two aspects is the secret for never veering from the Mahayana path.
Grant your blessings that Bodhicitta may arise, be stabilized, and grow in strength.
When the confusion of the eight concerns has been thrown over, ego-clinging completely severed,
and genuine concern for others thoroughly developed,
whatever appears can be experienced as an aid on the path of awakening.
Grant your blessings that mind training may be complete.
With the direct understanding that what is ultimate has no origin, cessation, or duration, is emptiness,
yet what is present arises from dependence and coincidence like an enchantment,
May I come to see everything and work naturally for the welfare of limitless beings as long as samsara exists.”
Translated by Ken McLeod, in: Jamgon Kongtrul, The Great Path of Awakening, Shambhala, Boston & London, 1987, pages 85-88.
One: The Preliminaries
1) Guru Yoga
I prostrate to the Great Compassionate One.
In your form is united the compassion of Buddha and his sons.
In order to experience and realize ultimate Bodhicitta, the preliminary practices are essential and therefore need to be practiced first. What are the preliminary practices?
As I explained in brief above, due to the obscurations and habitual patterns that cause one to differentiate and separate an apprehending self from apprehension of other things, one fails to realize the true nature of one’s own mind. In order to awaken to one’s true nature, one visualizes one’s Guru above the crown of one’s head. Trust and confidence that the Root Guru is the essence of all Buddhas of the three times needs to be pure and sincere. While visualizing one’s Root Lama with one-pointed devotion, one prays to him that he shows how to cultivate and experience ultimate Bodhicitta. Having invoked one’s Guru, who is the actual embodiment of all Buddhas of the three times, one imagines that he dissolves into oneself and then rests in the experience of one’s own true nature. This visualization is called “Guru Yoga,” which is practiced because it is due to the blessings and kindness of one’s Root Guru and the Lineage Holders that one can experience and manifest ultimate Bodhicitta.
2) The Four Contemplations
Revulsion and renunciation form the foundation.
Supreme pure Bodhicitta in its two aspects is the secret for never veering from the Mahayana path.
may I come to see everything and work naturally for the welfare of limitless beings as long as samsara exists.
The second preliminary practice is contemplating the four themes of Mahayana that turn the mind away from samsara. One first contemplates the unique occasion of having attained a precious human birth and determines to use one’s life meaningfully. Then one contemplates impermanence and death. As long as one has a precious human life, one should not waste it, because the time of death is uncertain and impermanence is a fact. The third practice that turns one’s mind to the pure Dharma is contemplating how to really make use of the fortunate opportunity of having attained a precious human life more fully by accumulating positive karma. One understands that, due to the infallible law of cause and effect, unwholesome activities of body, speech, and mind lead to painful results. Fourthly, one contemplates the meaningless propositions of samsara. These four contemplations inspire a practitioner to renounce futile concerns that samsara entails and to turn his or her attention towards liberation. The four contemplations are also a decisive foundation to eventually experience and realize Bodhicitta.
The purpose of all practices is to realize relative and ultimate Bodhicitta. It is therefore necessary to lay the foundation by engaging in the preliminary practices of visualizing one’s Root Guru as well the Lineage Holders and of contemplating the four thoughts that cause one to turn one’s attention towards Buddhahood and away from samsaric concerns. These practices are carried out during meditation sessions. One continuously holds Bodhicitta and the four thoughts in one’s mind and engages in virtuous activities with body and speech during post-meditative times with mindfulness and awareness.
Before continuing with the instructions, please generate the pure motivation of the awakened mind. Having cleared your minds and with pure thoughts in your hearts, please receive these teachings with attentiveness.
We have gone through the first point of The Seven Points of Mind Training, which deals with the preliminary practices. Perfecting these practices makes one a worthy vessel to receive and contain the blessings within one, the reason one practices Guru Yoga and contemplates the four thoughts or reminders to turn one’s mind away from samsara. Now I will speak about Bodhicitta.
Two: The Main Practices
1) Absolute Bodhicitta
Regard dharmas as dreams.
Examine the nature of unborn awareness.
Self-liberate even the antidotes.
Rest in the nature of alaya, the essence.
In the post-meditation experience, one should become a child of illusion.
There are ultimate and relative Bodhicitta. The purpose of all practices is to develop and realize ultimate Bodhicitta. Lord Atisha first described ultimate Bodhicitta in the text, The Seven Points of Mind Training, so that practitioners are able to realize relative Bodhicitta, which is loving kindness and compassion for all sentient beings. In order to achieve relative Bodhicitta, it is necessary to meditate ultimate Bodhicitta, which is the true nature of all things. What does this mean? The ultimate truth is that every outer and inner phenomenon arises in dependence upon other things and therefore nothing is a self-existing entity. By realizing how all appearances and experiences exist, namely dependent upon other things, one is able to develop and realize relative Bodhicitta.
The explanations on relative and ultimate Bodhicitta should not be mistaken due to the order in which they are presented here. Usually it is taught that one must first generate and develop relative Bodhicitta so that one can realize the ultimate truth. The reason this text teaches that it is necessary to develop ultimate Bodhicitta in the beginning is because a practitioner must understand and know the ultimate, which supports one’s practice of relative Bodhicitta. By knowing the ultimate, one feels compassion for those who have not realized the true nature of all things, which is emptiness.
Regard all dharmas as dreams.
This short line is a teaching on ultimate Bodhicitta, which doesn’t mean one should brush off all outer phenomena as dreams, rather it points to the dream state in which everything seems to be solid, real, and true. The moment one wakes up after having had a dream, what seemed concrete and real during that time is understood and realized as having been unreal and non-substantial. When awake, one realizes that all experiences one considered real while dreaming were only thought to be real while asleep.
One needs to appreciate and acknowledge that all phenomena exist in mutual interdependence and that nothing exists of its own accord. One needs to realize that one labels things as though they exist on their own as long as one is bewildered as to the true nature of all things. This is why the teachings say that one must learn to see all inner and outer phenomena as a dream and to be aware that all things are a projection of one’s own mind. The Mahamudra teachings show that all phenomena are created by the mind, so it is important to base one’s practice on Mahamudra.
When it is taught that everything that is apprehended needs to be seen as a dream and not as real, this does not mean to say that perceptions and cognition should be ignored or are bad, rather it means to say that every appearance and experience is dependent upon other things and nothing exists independently. Interdependence points to the fact that nothing exists forever; it also points to the fact that things that exist are present. The truth of interdependence finally leads one to go beyond notions of existence and non-existence, since beliefs in and imputations of inherent existents and non-existents depend upon each other.
While gradually progressing along the path to Buddhahood, it is also necessary to examine the mind that sees that all things are like a dream. When one directly perceives one’s awareness, then one has seen one’s own mind that is not created, has no location, and therefore it is unimpeded. The mind is free from birth, abiding, and cessation. When one comes to see t...
Sharmik