While you are generating this motivation, ego might kick up a fuss and try to create doubts in your mind. Just ignore it. Ego might say, “This can’t be true. How can you help all sentient beings? How can you purify yourself?” Watch out when this voice kicks in, and don’t listen! Remember that our progress is completely dependent on the purity of our motivation. Spiritual practice is dependent on mind, and that means our attitude, our motivation. And proper motivation is absolutely crucial, as it ensures that our actions lead us in the right direction.
Often people come to my retreats because they want to be free of suffering. They think, “I’m going to do Buddhist practice in order to free myself of unpleasant emotions.” This is one type of motivation, and it is fine as far as it goes. Another type of motivation is broader in scope: “I want to help all sentient beings recognize their self-existing awareness.” This is the motivation of altruistic kindness. The best of all attitudes is to be motivated in a true, unfabricated way. Very often, however, it is not possible, and we must instead begin by fabricating it with the bodhichitta resolve.
Nowadays it seems that many people feel dissatisfied with themselves and their lives, as if normal worldly aims are not enough. Somehow, ego is tired of the ordinary; it needs different fuel. If you take spiritual fuel and give it to your ego, your ego grows stronger and you can go back into worldly life with renewed vigor. But this is not the purpose of spiritual practice. Quite honestly, many people find that their normal ego is fed up with worldly society. They want to pump up their egos, but normal fuel is not good enough. They hear about a certain spiritual fuel from the mountains of Tibet, and they think, “That will pump me up! Let me get my hands on some of that! Then I’ll be better, bigger, and greater. It’ll work even when I’m walking through Times Square.” So they head off to the mountains to get an injection of Tibetan fuel to pump up their egos. That attitude might be all right insofar as it brings someone into contact with the teachings, but it does not serve the true purpose of Dharma.
Ego-clinging is very subtle. Virtually everything we do seems to be another way to feed the ego. The ego coaxes us into assuming a path that seems to be a genuine spiritual practice, but then the ego goes right ahead and usurps it! Even chanting OM MANI PADME HUNG can be appropriated by the ego. We sit down on our meditation cushion and assume the posture, but it is out of ego. We light incense and prostrate before our statues in our little retreat room, but it is still all for our ego. We need something to break free from the ego’s grip. The very effective remedy for this is the accumulation of merit and the purification of obscurations, in conjunction with devotion and compassion.
If you don’t know how to initially motivate yourself in the true way, Dharma practice may be nothing more than another way of popping your daily vitamin, a remedy guaranteed to make “me” strong and healthy. When you use spiritual practice as a dietary supplement, you apply it whenever you feel a little low on energy or a little upset. You sit down and practice to feel better. You try to balance yourself through practice, and then you return to your normal activities and forget all about it. Some people have this attitude, believe me! They tell themselves that they need spirituality in their lives—after all, it is not politically correct to be totally materialistic. So they give themselves a little dose in the morning and another in the evening. They apply the gloss of spirituality to put a shine on their normal lives. This is a distinct trend, and some so-called teachers emphasize this approach by telling their students that they will be much happier if they just sit down and meditate for a few minutes every day. In doing so, they are trying to make spiritual practice easier, more appetizing, more palatable—trying to bend the Dharma to fit people’s attitudes. But that is not true spirituality. Don’t make the mistake of confusing this type of practice for the real thing.
Even if you only practice a little bit, try to do it in a genuine way, with a true view, meditation, and conduct. Even if it is only for a short while, let it be real. Otherwise, it is better to give it up altogether, because you may wind up using the Dharma to further ensnare yourself in confusion. To pretend to be a spiritual person and wear prayer beads around your wrist is useless in itself. If it happens naturally, fine, no problem. But if your intention is to be respected by others, to create a better image because you meditate or are spiritual, you are merely being pretentious.
Nor should you apply “Dharma polish,” spiritual practice that is used to make your deluded state appear prettier and more pleasant. One can advertise the value of spiritual practice just like advertising an exercise machine: “Use it twice a day for three weeks, and your confusion is guaranteed to clear up!” It sounds nice, but it doesn’t really work.
To really embrace spiritual practice, you need to be honest with yourself and sincerely appreciate what it is you are doing. True honesty and appreciation give you confidence in life. Do not cheat yourself. If your practice is only to boost your ego, the Dharma becomes nothing more than a mask. You are simply fooling yourself, which is useless—you might as well not bother. But if your motivation is pure, you don’t fool yourself.
Who is it that knows whether you are fooling yourself? Karma does. Karma stays with you continuously, and it never closes its eyes. Even when you are alone in the bathroom, karma is watching. Be careful! No matter what you do or where you are, karma never sleeps, because it is the natural result of all your actions and intentions. Karma is a constant witness to all you do, now and in the future. Whether other people acknowledge your actions or not really does not matter: karma and the buddhas will do so with 100 percent accuracy. Trust yourself; trust your pure motivation and the good actions of karma.
Pure motivation is really not so difficult to understand. All you have to do is take it to heart and live it. Don’t be like the person who comes to me with a cup containing water, ten spoonfuls of sugar, ten spoonfuls of chili, ten spoonfuls of oil, and many other things all mixed up into a big mess. He says, “Rinpoche, this doesn’t taste good. I want it to taste better. Can you do something?” I say, “Sure, I’ll try.” And I start to pour some of the water out. The person jumps up and yells, “Oh, please, don’t pour any water out! I refuse to take anything out.” Wondering what I should do, I ask, “Can I add more sugar?” Again he objects, “No, no, I don’t want to add anything—just make it taste good. I don’t want to change anything except the taste.” What is one to do? For me, it is very easy. I simply say, “Fine, fine, I will pray for you.” Because there is nothing else for me to do except pray. People like this refuse to change, let alone let go of ego. Yet they still want something to happen! They are waiting for a miracle that will never come. All I can do is pray.
I am not saying that one should be completely fanatical here by insisting that Buddhism has nothing to do with improving one’s present situation in this life and is only for future lives. Genuinely practice the Buddhist path and this present life automatically improves, as if by default. You may also want to assume the responsibility for improving your future lives during your present one, but it is so much easier to accomplish that aim when you have the complete Buddhism.
In this book, I will discuss the reasons and ways to access the perfect spiritual path. The short version of how to do this is that we need to generate bodhichitta. To generate bodhichitta we must first calm our minds. That is done through shamatha practice. Through shamatha practice we attain a state of calm abiding. Having reached a certain peace, we are able to come closer to making all sentient beings feel at ease with loving-kindness and helping them be free of suffering through compassion.
The main point of the Buddha’s extraordinary teachings is the view that emptiness and compassion are indivisible. Neither compassion nor emptiness by itself is sufficient. Emptiness is free of the grasping to a self. Compassion is benevolence for all beings, which, by the way, includes oneself. These two are inextricably interconnected.
There are two approaches in Tibetan Buddhism. One starts with the methods of compassion and loving-kindness. Through these, one accumulates merit and is slowly led to realizing the view of emptiness. In the other approach, because one has arrived at the correct view by means of the extraordinary teachings of the Great Perfection, compassion naturally