Rinpoche will give us the essence of the Eight Verses of Thought Transformation. If we go into very detailed explanation of these teachings, it would take a whole lifetime and since our precious human life is short, it would be more practical to get the essence of the teaching and practice it properly. Lojong = Lo (Mind) + Jong (training), means to train our minds, to be aware of the waves of afflictive thoughts (defilements) which constantly sweep us away. From beginningless time, we have been trained in the three poisons of hatred, attachment and ignorance. We are caught up in samsara due to being conditioned to the three poisons. No one wants suffering, we all want happiness. However, we seem to be getting more suffering than happiness. We have to reflect if this suffering is caused by an external entity or from our own selves? Rinpoche said our suffering is attributed to our deluded mind, which is constantly consumed by the three poisons, and nothing to do with external entities. From beginningless time, we have been blissfully ignorant of the cause of our suffering. To eliminate the three poisons from our mindstream, we need the guidance of our Gurus to teach us the correct method of practice to come out of suffering. Listening, contemplating and meditating are the three methods which we need to systematically employ to train our minds to eliminate the three poisons from our mindstream. Example of “Jong” (training): When we see wild animals, we are frightened because the animals are untamed and fierce. However, we are not afraid of circus animals though they are the same fearful animals because these animals have been trained by animal trainers. They are well trained and subdued that instead of us being scared of it, these animals follow whatever the trainer asks them to perform. They are no longer dangerous. Similarly, we are being trained by our three poisons from the beginningless time until now and thus we run after the afflictive emotions very easily. Now we have to rely on our Gurus to train us so that we eliminate the afflictions/delusions from our mind. . Verse 1 By thinking of all living beings As more precious than a wish-fulfilling jewel For accomplishing the highest aim, I will always hold them dear. We suffer because of our pre-occupation with “I, me, and mine”. We are always thinking of ourselves, never others. ‘I’ want happiness; ‘I’ don’t want sadness, let ‘others’ get the sadness, but never ‘me’. This verse says that we have to reverse our self-cherishing thought, i.e. to shift our focus from ‘I’ to ‘others’. We must always place more important on others, than ourselves. We must give happiness to others, as much as we can. “More precious than a wish-fulfilling jewel”: From the samsaric perspective, a wish-fulfilling jewel will give us whatever we wish for, e.g. food, drink or material wealth. However, not even a wish-fulfilling jewel can give us enlightenment, freedom from samsara. At the most, a wish-fulfilling jewel can give us all the material wealth we need, all samsaric gain, but it cannot give us liberation from samsara, it cannot grant us ultimate Buddhahood. Why is this so? It is because a wish-fulfilling jewel itself does not have the innate capability/power to grant us enlightenment. At a previous Kagyu Monlam in Bodhgaya, His Holiness (HH) the 17th Karmapa said, “A wish-fulfilling jewel is not to be seen and has no colour or shape. Thus currencies like US ($), Euro (€) and Pounds (£) are taken as a wish-fulfilling jewel. If we have lots of money we can buy everything we want. However, we will never be able to purchase Buddhahood, even if we had all the money in the world.” When we give importance to others that is the real wish-fulfilling jewel. Our attaining enlightenment is entirely dependent on others. Without others, we cannot attain enlightenment. We need others to practice, e.g. patience. As we give importance to others, our bodhicitta increases and this bodhicitta is the actual wish-fulfilling jewel that will bring us to enlightenment. For example, in this life, everything that we have, it comes from others. If we think that we are famous, it really doesn’t matter unless others say that we are famous. Also, if a singer praises his own singing, it would be nothing compared with praise coming from others. Likewise, giving importance to others, generating the mind of bodhicitta, can only arise dependent on others. Without others, there is nothing to practice. Buddha Shakyamuni was not a Buddha from the beginning. He was an ordinary human being like all of us but he trained his mind and came out of samsara. The Buddha (when he was a bodhisattva) practiced by giving his happiness to others for a very long period of time. We are still in samsara while Prince Siddharta (who later became the Buddha) achieved Buddhahood and has come out of samsara because the Buddha, in his past lives, gave away his happiness to others and took the suffering onto him. In contrast, we are still here today, in samsara because of our self-cherishing mind. Story: In the past, there was a king known as Jampa Tob, who was full of loving-kindness (the Buddha, in one of his past lives). There were five Mara(s) who used to create many problems for the people. As these five Maras or obstacle-givers approached the kingdom, they saw that the people there were very calm and relaxed. In the forest they saw cowherds were relaxing while the cows roamed freely in the jungles. The five Maras were perplexed and enquired, “How could you (cowherds) be relaxing, while your animals are roaming in the forest freely with the wild animals? Will the cows not be eaten or harmed by the wild animals in the forest?” The cowherds in the kingdom replied, “We have nothing to fear as our king is a deep practitioner of loving-kindness”. These five Maras tried to find out for themselves if the king was indeed a great practitioner of loving-kindness. They transformed into ordinary human form, very poor and hungry, and approached the king. When they finally met the king, they transformed back into blood-thirsty ugly ogres who demanded hot blood and meat from the king. The king thought, “How should I feed these five ogres? If I kill other animals, it would be depriving them of life.” The king then decided to cut his own flesh and fed them to their heart’s content. The ogres feasted on his flesh and blood. Another story of a past life of the Buddha is when he was Prince Mahasattva, who sacrificed his life to feed his flesh and blood to a starving tigress and her cubs. The Jataka tales (tales of the Buddha’s past lives) is a good example for us to understand how important it is to be selfless and help sentient beings. It is not necessary for us to go to the extent of giving our flesh and blood to practice giving (generosity), but we can give whatever we can, according to our own capacity. We can visualise giving our happiness to others and taking their suffering onto ourselves: Visualisation: Visualise above the crown of our head, our Guru who is inseparable with the Buddha. Visualise nectar flowing out from our Guru, purifying our negative karmas, habitual tendencies, defilements and sickness. Then, we visualise sending out our happiness to others in the form of bright white light and then taking in the suffering of others in the form of black smoke.
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 05:25:42 +0000
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