Once an evil man who had killed thousands of people met a Bodhisattva called King Chandra, who helped him by teaching him Dharma and showing him the error of his ways. The man said, “Having looked into the mirror of Dharma I now understand how negative my actions have been, and I feel great regret for them.” Motivated by deep remorse he engaged sincerely in purification practices and eventually became a highly realized Yogi. This shows that by recognizing one’s own faults in the mirror of Dharma and then making a concerted effort to remove them, even the most evil person can become a completely pure being.
In Tibet there was once a famous Dharma practitioner called Geshe Ben Gungyal, who neither recited prayers nor meditated in the traditional meditation posture. His only practice was to observe his mind very attentively and counter delusions as soon as they arose. Whenever he noticed his mind becoming even slightly agitated, he was especially vigilant and refused to follow any negative thoughts. For instance, if he felt self-cherishing was about to arise he would immediately recall its disadvantages, and then he would stop this mind from manifesting by applying its opponent, the practice of love. Whenever his mind was naturally peaceful and positive, he would relax and allow himself to enjoy his virtuous states of mind.
To gauge his progress he would put a black pebble down in front of him whenever a negative thought arose, and a white pebble whenever a positive thought arose, and at the end of the day he would count the pebbles. If there were more black pebbles he would reprimand himself and try even harder the next day, but if there were more white pebbles he would praise and encourage himself. At the beginning the black pebbles greatly outnumbered the white ones, but over the years his mind improved until he reached the point when entire days went by without any black pebbles. Before becoming a Dharma practitioner Geshe Ben Gungyal had had a reputation for being wild and unruly, but by watching his mind closely all the time, and judging it with complete honesty in the mirror of Dharma, he gradually became a very pure and holy being. Why can we not do the same?
The Kadampa Geshes taught that the function of a Spiritual Guide is to point out his or her disciples’ faults, because then the disciple has a clear understanding of these shortcomings and the opportunity to overcome them. These days, however, if a Teacher were to point out his or her disciples’ faults they would probably become upset, and may even lose their faith, and so the Teacher usually has to adopt a gentler approach. However, even though our Spiritual Guide may tactfully be refraining from directly pointing out our faults, we still need to become aware of them by examining our mind in the mirror of his or her teachings. By relating our Spiritual Guide’s teachings on karma and delusions to our own situation, we will be able to understand what we need to abandon and what we need to practice.
A sick person cannot be cured of his illness just by reading the instructions on a bottle of medicine, but he can be cured by actually taking the medicine. Similarly Buddha gave Dharma instructions as supreme medicine to cure the inner disease of our delusions, but we cannot cure this disease just by reading or studying Dharma books. We can only solve our daily problems by taking Dharma into our heart and practicing it sincerely.
Chandrakirti
VIEWING ALL LIVING BEINGS AS SUPREME
Bodhisattva Langri Tangpa prays:
And with a pure intention,
May I cherish others as supreme.
If we wish to attain enlightenment, or to develop the superior bodhichitta that comes from exchanging self with others, we must definitely adopt the view that others are more precious than ourself. This view is based on wisdom and leads us to our final goal, whereas the view that regards ourself as more precious than others is based on self-grasping ignorance and leads us along the paths of samsara.
What exactly does it mean to say that something is precious? If we were asked which was more precious, a diamond or a bone, we would say a diamond. This is because a diamond is more useful to us. However, for a dog a bone would be more precious because he can eat a bone whereas he cannot do anything with a diamond. This indicates that preciousness is not an intrinsic quality of an object but depends upon an individual’s needs and wishes, which in turn depend upon his or her karma. For someone whose main wish is to achieve the spiritual realizations of love, compassion, bodhichitta and great enlightenment, living beings are more precious than a universe filled with diamonds or even wish-granting jewels. Why is this? It is because living beings help that person to develop love and compassion and to fulfill his or her wish for enlightenment, which is something that a whole universe filled with jewels could never do.
No one wants to remain an ordinary, ignorant being forever; indeed, all of us have the wish to improve ourself and to progress to higher and higher states. The highest state of all is full enlightenment, and the main road leading to enlightenment is the realizations of love, compassion, bodhichitta and the practice of the six perfections. We can only develop these qualities in dependence upon other living beings. How can we learn to love with no one to love? How can we practice giving with no one to give to, or patience with no one to irritate us? Whenever we see another living being we can increase our spiritual qualities such as love and compassion, and in this way we come closer to enlightenment and the fulfillment of our deepest wishes. How kind living beings are to act as the objects of our love and compassion. How precious they are!
When Atisha was in Tibet he had an Indian assistant who was always criticizing him. When the Tibetans asked him why he kept this assistant when there were many faithful Tibetans who would be more than happy to serve him, Atisha replied, “Without this man, there would be no one with whom I could practice patience. He is very kind to me. I need him!” Atisha understood that the only way to fulfill his deepest wish to benefit all living beings was to achieve enlightenment, and that to do this he needed to perfect his patience. For Atisha, his bad-tempered assistant was more precious than material possessions, praise or any other worldly attainment.
Our spiritual realizations are our inner wealth for they help us in all situations and are the only possessions we can take with us when we die. Once we learn to value the inner wealth of patience, giving, love and compassion above external conditions we will come to regard each and every sentient being as supremely precious, no matter how they treat us. This will make it very easy for us to cherish them.
In our meditation session we contemplate the reasons given above until we reach the following conclusion:
Sentient beings are extremely precious because without them I cannot gather the inner wealth of spiritual realizations that will eventually bring me the ultimate happiness of full enlightenment. Since without this inner wealth I will have to remain in samsara forever, I will always regard sentient beings as supremely important.
We meditate on this determination single-pointedly for as long as possible. When we arise from meditation we try to maintain this determination all the time, recognizing how much we need each and every sentient being for our spiritual practice. By maintaining this recognition our inner problems of anger, attachment, jealousy and so forth will subside, and we will naturally come to cherish others. In particular, whenever people interfere with our wishes or criticize us we should remember that we need these people in order to develop the spiritual realizations that are the true meaning of our human life. If everyone treated us with the kindness and respect our self-cherishing feels we deserve, this would only reinforce our delusions and deplete our merit. Imagine what we would be like if we always got what we wanted! We would be just like a spoiled child who feels that the world revolves around him, and who is unpopular with everyone. In fact, we all need someone like Atisha’s assistant, because such people give us the opportunity to destroy our self-cherishing and train our mind, thereby making our life truly meaningful.