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Audio
53:09
In general, when it comes to the Dharma,
What does it do for us?
What does the Dharma do? How does it help?
The Dharma is a remedy
to our afflictive emotions.
It has to be, any Dharma activity,
any Dharma practice that we do.
It must be a remedy to our
negative emotions. That's why
we do all of the Dharma practice
and Dharma activity that we do.
And one practice, that of the seven
branches, is something that's extremely
important, that we recite at the
beginning of the teaching session.
The first branch is that of prostration. And
this is because we make prostrations,
because I and all sentient beings
have engaged in negative actions,
physically, verbally and mentally.
And we have in this
way accumulated a lot of
negativity, a lot of
obscuration, a lot of wrongdoing.
We've broken commitments through
engaging in these kinds of
negativity with our body,
our speech and our mind.
And in order to purify
that and also in order
that the awakened
body, speech and mind,
all of the qualities of the awakened
body, speech and mind of the Buddhas
and Bodhisattvas, residing in the
ten directions in the three times,
in order that those excellent
qualities might be born within
myself as well, born within me
too, quickly, we make prostrations.
So this is very important to prostrate. And
then offering, that's the second branch.
There are lots of kinds of
offerings. There's outer offering,
inner offering, secret offering,
the offering of suchness.
But here in this context
we make a mandala offering.
And the mandala offering
that we recite, right?
The earth is perfumed with
scented water, strewn with flowers,
adorned with Mount Meru, the four
continents, the sun and the moon.
So the four continents,
that's four, at Mount Meru,
that's five, the sun and
the moon, six, seven.
These seven aspects, all of these we bring
to mind and we offer, we offer all of this.
And the reason why we make offerings is
because we are stingy and we are attached.
And in order to remedy our stinginess
and our attachment, we make offerings.
So that in this way, when we
overcome that stinginess
and attachment, it allows for compassion
and wisdom to unfold within us.
In this way then we purify a lot
of negativity and wrongdoing and
obscuration and we also gather merit,
an excellent way of gathering merit.
So this is making offerings
and why that's so important.
And then confession.
Confession is really important.
Confession is something
that if we do it in a
context like here, we are
in a temple setting, right?
There are images, representations of awakened
body, speech and mind, there are lamas,
there are monastics, there are our dharma
brothers and sisters, our vajra siblings.
And in the presence of such practitioners,
then, if we make confession, bring to mind
all of the negative actions that we've engaged
in since beginningless time in Samsara.
We have engaged in physical
negative actions, verbal ones,
and mental ones, since
beginningless time in Samsara.
If we bring those to mind and
confess them, it's said that even a small
negative deed cannot be purified,
if we don't regret it and confess it.
But even a great heavy
negative karma, a negative action
can be purified, if we
sincerely regret and confess.
And so in this way
then, it's said that there
are no good qualities
to bad deeds, except one.
They can be purified through
confession, through regret and confession.
So in some sense we could say that's
the only good quality of negative actions.
And then, rejoicing, right? So prostration,
offering, confession and then rejoicing.
Rejoicing here is bringing to mind all
of the virtuous actions, the good, kind,
altruistic actions that have been engaged
in by all of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.
But not just the Buddhas
and Bodhisattvas,
even ordinary sentient
beings, ordinary beings.
All of the goodness that we have engaged
in, all of the good things that all beings
have engaged in, the beneficial activity
that has been engaged in by all beings.
If we rejoice in that, then there is a
tremendous amount of benefit in doing so.
It's very powerful actually
to rejoice in the goodness
of everyone, all the goodness
that has been engaged in.
And it creates actually a very
important habit, habitual pattern
within ourselves, a habit towards virtue
when we rejoice in the virtue of others.
And then we make the
request to the teacher
to turn the wheel of Dharma,
to teach the Dharma.
So, again we prostrate, we
offer, we confess, we rejoice
and then we request the turning
of the wheel of the Dharma.
And this is in order to
clear away the darkness of
ignorance, to clear away
the darkness of ignorance.
When we are on the wrong path or leave
the path behind, we wander in samsara.
And in order to remedy
that situation, we ask
the teacher to teach, to
turn the wheel of Dharma.
And then we request the
teacher not to pass into Nirvana.
This again is so important
because we need to have the
darkness of our wrong
views cleared away, dispelled.
And in order that we don't get
caught up in these kind of wrong views,
we request the teacher to remain
in the world, not to pass into Nirvana.
And then, we dedicate, we dedicate
the virtue that has been accumulated.
And there are many,
many different ways of
accumulating virtue, of
accumulating virtuous actions.
But here we are in the
context of Dharma teaching.
And as I mentioned to you
yesterday, that is one of the
most meritorious, most
virtuous things that can happen.
Because, as I mentioned,
it clears away the
darkness of ignorance
in the minds of beings.
And so, the wisdom that arises
from listening to the teachings
and contemplating them is
very precious and important.
And so in this way then,
it can purify actually,
clear away the negativity that we have
accumulated with our body, our speech
and our mind and turn us physically,
verbally and mentally towards virtue.
And so in this way then, the
merit, the virtue that comes about
through listening to the teachings
and all merit that we engage in,
we should dedicate
it to the attainment of
liberation and omniscience
of all sentient beings.
Because that virtue can actually
bring us, it can create the circumstances
that allow us to attain that result
of liberation and omniscience.
And therefore listening to the
teachings and contemplating them,
is extremely important,
it's extremely important.
And this specific kind of
virtue is particularly powerful.
So then that's the seventh
branch of dedicating.
These seven branches are
really important practices for us.
When we request the teachers not to pass into nirvana, another benefit is that, that prevents us from following wrong teachers and from spending time around non-virtuous company. So this is another benefit. When it comes to taking refuge and generating bodhicitta, the seven branch practice and so on, these are things that we do again and again and again and again. And there's a reason for that. When we take refuge in the three jewels, we are purifying the negativity that we have accumulated in the past through not respecting, not having faith in, looking wrongly upon the three jewels, or not knowing their excellent qualities. In particular, not being interested in the Dharma. If we're not interested in the Dharma, then we won't learn the Dharma, and then we won't know the Dharma, and then we won't practice the Dharma. And if we don't practice the Dharma, then we don't attain liberation and omniscience. And so taking refuge in the three jewels is a way of remedying that kind of negativity, which we may have engaged in in the past. And this is something that we repeat again and again and again. In particular, when we take refuge in the Buddha, what we are doing is bringing to mind the excellent qualities, the positive qualities of the Buddha, and the kindness, actually, of the Buddha. When we recall this and bring this to mind, then it also creates the circumstances for, for us to become Buddhas ourselves in the future. So, we're creating the positive circumstances for that to come about. And it prevents us, also, taking refuge in the Buddha, likewise, prevents us from following after wrong teachers, teachers who are not leading in the correct direction. So refuge is very important. And so is taking refuge in the Dharma. So taking refuge in the Buddha, of course, is important, but also in the Dharma, remembering the excellent qualities of the Buddha Dharma, remembering the kindness, actually, of the Dharma. And understanding that, if we take refuge in the Dharma, that kind of refuge actually makes it easier for us to connect more directly and understand more easily the vast and profound teachings of the Dharma. And also to not be so interested in things that aren't Dharma, in terms of topics of knowledge, right? There's other things that we can study. Some of them are good, some of them are not very good, some of them are harmful. And taking refuge in the Dharma can create the circumstances for us to lose interest in those other things that we might otherwise be interested in, which are harmful. So taking refuge in the Dharma is very important for that reason. And taking refuge in the Sangha is also really important. In general, we take refuge, of course, in the Bodhisattvas, the Buddhas, the Bodhisattvas who are residing on the Bodhisattva grounds, the Bhumis, also the Sangha of Arhats, these practitioners also, great practitioners who avoid, who refrain from the ten non-virtues, who practice the ten virtues, who cultivate love and compassion, and bodhichitta who train in shamatha, who train in vipassana, who cultivate the stages of practice of the generation stage, the perfection stage. When we take refuge in this kind of sangha, then it creates the circumstances that we too, can become like them, that we too can take up those practices and follow that same, that very same path, become male and female bodhisattvas. So, there's a great benefit actually in taking refuge in the sangha. Likewise, it creates the conditions that we don't get caught up in non-virtuous friends spending time hanging around in non-virtuous friendships. So, this kind of taking refuge in the sangha has this kind of benefit. Actually, there's quite a lot of reasons why we take refuge and, if we know them, when we recite just these few lines, I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the Dharma, I take refuge in the sangha, just reciting that. And we do it three times, we do it again and again. There's a reason, why we do it three times. It's because we want to make sure that we are bringing to mind in a very stable way what we're actually saying. That's important that we're not just saying the words. The same goes for bodhichitta, in order that we're really remembering and bringing to mind what we're doing when we recite the lines for generating the awakened attitude of bodhichitta. There's a reason why we repeat these things. It's a really important reason. So, refuge and bodhichitta, in very brief, we can explain in those ways, just mentioned.
So I explained just now a little bit about the benefits of refuge. But what about bodhichitta, generating bodhichitta? We bring to mind the idea, may all beings be happy and have the causes of happiness. We shouldn't just say the words, we have to really bring to mind what this means. Really keep this in mind. If we think about it for a moment, all sentient beings suffer. Those who have a lot suffer, those who have very little, they also suffer. If you just take a look actually, you can see that even those who outwardly at first glance seem to have it all. They have all of the resources that they need, they have wealth, they have power, they have fame perhaps. But when you look a little bit more closely, you see that they experience so much mental suffering, so much mental suffering. They're proud, they're jealous, they're competitive, they're greedy, arrogant, caught up in all of these afflictive emotions. Their mind is so tight, so rigid, so unhappy actually, so bound and caught up in pride and jealousy and competitiveness. If we look at someone who doesn't have much, perhaps the cause of their happiness is that they just don't have enough to even get by, right? They don't have enough food, they don't have enough to eat and drink, they don't have a place to stay. Sometimes someone like that, they simply get what they need to be okay, then they're quite happy actually, right? But then you look at people who have everything and somehow they're just not happy. They are famous, they're powerful, they're wealthy, but their mind is afflicted by so much suffering, so much suffering. And we can see that this is the case actually. And so, we see that both those who have very little as well as those who have a lot, suffer. Again, why is it that those who have so much in terms of wealth, in terms of power, in terms of possessions, why do they suffer? It's because of their attachments, their attachments and their anger, attachment and aversion. And where does that come from? That comes from delusion, the delusion, the ignorance of not knowing, right? Because when one is attached and caught up in aversion, then that causes the accumulation of actions, of karma, and the result of that is painful, the result of that is painful, it's suffering. And that suffering has to be experienced by oneself, the person who engaged in that kind of action, that kind of mindset. So we know that the cause of suffering is attachment and aversion and delusion. And yet, sometimes even while knowing that, we still engage in those actions, right? We still get caught up, we still fall under the sway of our attachments, of our aggression and delusion. Of course it's the case that people who don't know that that's the cause of suffering do those things, of course, right? But even when we know, we still find ourselves caught under the sway of those afflictions. And it's not just that attachment brings suffering and that aggression brings suffering. Attachment itself is suffering, it's painful. And anger is painful, anger itself is painful, anger itself is a form of suffering. Where do we suffer? Where does that suffering manifest? It manifests in our body and in our mind, both physically and mentally. And so this is why we make the prayer, may all beings be happy and have all of the causes of happiness, the causes of happiness both temporarily, like right now, and also the causes of future happiness, even for temporary happiness, not just ultimate happiness, even just for temporary happiness, it has to come about from a cause, just not uncaused. It has to have some kind of cause. And what is the cause of happiness just right at this very moment? It's love and compassion, right? Love and compassion. Love and compassion when we feel that, when we really genuinely give rise to that, then that brings happiness to ourselves, it also brings happiness to others, it brings happiness to anyone, everyone who's around us, when we really feel genuine love and compassion. Honestly, you know, all of you who are here right now, you're saying, oh, it's so nice to be here, I'm so happy to be here, it's so enjoyable. Why is that happening? Why do you feel like that when you're here? It's actually because you're getting along. It's because you love and care for each other and you're getting along with one another. That's where that comes from. There's a lot of different kinds of people here from different countries who speak different languages with different cultural backgrounds. Why is it so nice to be here together, all of us? It's nice and we're enjoying it because we get along, that's why, right?
And we get along because of care, love and care. So this is what creates the circumstances for being happy. In fact, that kind of love and getting along with others, that is itself virtue. That is a form of virtue. And the degree to which that we don't get along with other people, as much as we don't get along and have difficulty in our relationships, to that degree, we feel unhappy. That always creates a sense of unhappiness and suffering. In a worldly context, too. We're not talking about just in a dharmic context, right? And so that's why love and compassion and care and getting along with one another is so important. It's a cause for worldly happiness and it's also a cause that creates the circumstances to bring about wisdom and then omniscience, liberation and omniscience. That also comes from love, out of love. So we make the prayer, may all beings be happy. And may they also have the causes that create happiness, that bring about happiness. And we should make that prayer and that aspiration one-pointedly, really from our heart. It's to wish that all beings are happy, that they are physically comfortable and that they are happy in their minds as well. And that creates actually happiness and ease for us, too. Feeling that kind of wish and that aspiration, creates physical and mental ease. And then we make the prayer and the aspiration, may all beings be free from suffering and its causes. Again, what are the causes for suffering? Even temporary suffering, we're not talking about just long-term, but even immediate suffering. It comes about from attachment, it comes about from aggression, it comes about due to pride, due to jealousy, competitiveness. Each one of those afflictive emotions brings a cascade of others. They come one after the other. What is the real ultimate cause of all of those afflictions? What is the real ultimate cause of actually all of our suffering? Well, it comes from ignorance, the ignorance of not knowing. Not knowing what? Not knowing what we ought to know, what there is to know. And what is that? Well, a presentation about, or an understanding of the outer perceived objects, as well as the inner perceiving mind, and in particular, the path that leads to liberation and omniscience. When we don't know that, when we are ignorant when it comes to that, then we end up on the wrong path, leaving the path behind, and we wander in samsara. So, that is what creates that, right? If we are not confused about what there is to know, we will not be on the wrong path, we will not leave the path behind, and we will not wander in samsara. This is why it is so important, actually, to understand there's of course many topics that we could learn about and come to know, and there's actually a lot of religions too. I mentioned yesterday that it's important for us to have respect for religions in general because they help people, they're beneficial. But here in the context of the Buddha Dharma among religions that exist in the world, if we want to understand the Buddha Dharma, there are clear presentations that can help us to gain real confidence, certainty with respect to the teachings of the Dharma, can be explained very briefly, it can be explained in a medium length, and it can be explained in so great detail, such great detail, that it takes months, and months, and years and years. And it can be explained in that way, very clearly, very lucidly, this too is possible. When we make the aspiration, bring to mind, may all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering, that's something that we should really feel from deep within ourselves. Really from the core of our heart. And if we do that one-pointedly, right, may all beings be happy, truly happy, and have the causes of true happiness. If we feel that so intently that tears form in our eyes, that the hair on our body stands on end, because we're so one-pointedly strong in that aspiration for all beings to be happy and to have the causes that bring about happiness. And to be free from suffering and its causes, this generates the awakened attitude of bodhichitta. It comes out of that kind of aspiration. And when we have genuine bodhichitta, then we can really engage in activities that benefit others. We can really start to help. We can practice generosity that's real generosity, right? Not stingy generosity, not generosity that's somehow caught up in trying to show off to others through what we give. But real generosity. Then we can practice all of the six perfections in this way. We can practice the four means of magnetizing all of the conduct of a bodhisattva in a way that's real, that's genuine. Why? What makes it possible for us to practice bodhisattva conduct genuinely, really authentically? What makes it possible to do this is bodhichitta, love and compassion, bodhichitta. And so here we are talking about may beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering and happiness and may they have happiness and the causes of happiness. And now we know what the causes of suffering are, right? We know that clearly. We're aware very clearly what the causes of happiness are. We know that we have engaged in a lot of negative actions, physically, verbally and mentally. And there are plenty of them that we are aware of that we've engaged in. There's also plenty of negative things we've done that we're not even aware of, we don't even remember. But these kind of actions, these negative actions, they create what we call the karmic obscuration. And actually karma just means action. If you want to talk about accumulating karma, it just means doing things, acting. Each action is a karma. It is a moment of karma, the accumulation of karma. Karma means action. And so, if we want to purify, if we wonder how can I purify all those negative things that I've done with my body, my speech, my mind, how can I purify those negative actions, the obscurations, all the habits, the negative habits that I've accumulated, how can I purify them? There's a really, really powerful way of purifying them, the most powerful. And that is love, compassion, bodhichitta, real love and compassion. That wish, that aspiration, may all beings be free from suffering and its causes. May they all have happiness and all of the causes that bring about happiness. When we have that motivation in a truly pure, genuinely pure way, then we become capable of engaging in action that helps others in an extensive, a very extensive and vast way. We become capable of that kind of action. So bodhichitta, the awakened attitude of bodhichitta is really important. And so when we recite the verses for generating bodhichitta, we do that three times also. And that's again for a reason. It's so that we can bring to mind in a very stable way what we're doing when we generate bodhichitta and to keep that in mind very clearly. So, this also is so important to generate bodhichitta in this way. Short break.
Right time, right dream. Yeah, refreshing (time.)
When we request the teachers not to pass into nirvana, another benefit is that, that prevents us from following wrong teachers and from spending time around non-virtuous company. So this is another benefit. When it comes to taking refuge and generating bodhicitta, the seven branch practice and so on, these are things that we do again and again and again and again. And there's a reason for that. When we take refuge in the three jewels, we are purifying the negativity that we have accumulated in the past through not respecting, not having faith in, looking wrongly upon the three jewels, or not knowing their excellent qualities. In particular, not being interested in the Dharma. If we're not interested in the Dharma, then we won't learn the Dharma, and then we won't know the Dharma, and then we won't practice the Dharma. And if we don't practice the Dharma, then we don't attain liberation and omniscience. And so taking refuge in the three jewels is a way of remedying that kind of negativity, which we may have engaged in in the past. And this is something that we repeat again and again and again. In particular, when we take refuge in the Buddha, what we are doing is bringing to mind the excellent qualities, the positive qualities of the Buddha, and the kindness, actually, of the Buddha. When we recall this and bring this to mind, then it also creates the circumstances for, for us to become Buddhas ourselves in the future. So, we're creating the positive circumstances for that to come about. And it prevents us, also, taking refuge in the Buddha, likewise, prevents us from following after wrong teachers, teachers who are not leading in the correct direction. So refuge is very important. And so is taking refuge in the Dharma. So taking refuge in the Buddha, of course, is important, but also in the Dharma, remembering the excellent qualities of the Buddha Dharma, remembering the kindness, actually, of the Dharma. And understanding that, if we take refuge in the Dharma, that kind of refuge actually makes it easier for us to connect more directly and understand more easily the vast and profound teachings of the Dharma. And also to not be so interested in things that aren't Dharma, in terms of topics of knowledge, right? There's other things that we can study. Some of them are good, some of them are not very good, some of them are harmful. And taking refuge in the Dharma can create the circumstances for us to lose interest in those other things that we might otherwise be interested in, which are harmful. So taking refuge in the Dharma is very important for that reason. And taking refuge in the Sangha is also really important. In general, we take refuge, of course, in the Bodhisattvas, the Buddhas, the Bodhisattvas who are residing on the Bodhisattva grounds, the Bhumis, also the Sangha of Arhats, these practitioners also, great practitioners who avoid, who refrain from the ten non-virtues, who practice the ten virtues, who cultivate love and compassion, and bodhichitta who train in shamatha, who train in vipassana, who cultivate the stages of practice of the generation stage, the perfection stage. When we take refuge in this kind of sangha, then it creates the circumstances that we too, can become like them, that we too can take up those practices and follow that same, that very same path, become male and female bodhisattvas. So, there's a great benefit actually in taking refuge in the sangha. Likewise, it creates the conditions that we don't get caught up in non-virtuous friends spending time hanging around in non-virtuous friendships. So, this kind of taking refuge in the sangha has this kind of benefit. Actually, there's quite a lot of reasons why we take refuge and, if we know them, when we recite just these few lines, I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the Dharma, I take refuge in the sangha, just reciting that. And we do it three times, we do it again and again. There's a reason, why we do it three times. It's because we want to make sure that we are bringing to mind in a very stable way what we're actually saying. That's important that we're not just saying the words. The same goes for bodhichitta, in order that we're really remembering and bringing to mind what we're doing when we recite the lines for generating the awakened attitude of bodhichitta. There's a reason why we repeat these things. It's a really important reason. So, refuge and bodhichitta, in very brief, we can explain in those ways, just mentioned.
So I explained just now a little bit about the benefits of refuge. But what about bodhichitta, generating bodhichitta? We bring to mind the idea, may all beings be happy and have the causes of happiness. We shouldn't just say the words, we have to really bring to mind what this means. Really keep this in mind. If we think about it for a moment, all sentient beings suffer. Those who have a lot suffer, those who have very little, they also suffer. If you just take a look actually, you can see that even those who outwardly at first glance seem to have it all. They have all of the resources that they need, they have wealth, they have power, they have fame perhaps. But when you look a little bit more closely, you see that they experience so much mental suffering, so much mental suffering. They're proud, they're jealous, they're competitive, they're greedy, arrogant, caught up in all of these afflictive emotions. Their mind is so tight, so rigid, so unhappy actually, so bound and caught up in pride and jealousy and competitiveness. If we look at someone who doesn't have much, perhaps the cause of their happiness is that they just don't have enough to even get by, right? They don't have enough food, they don't have enough to eat and drink, they don't have a place to stay. Sometimes someone like that, they simply get what they need to be okay, then they're quite happy actually, right? But then you look at people who have everything and somehow they're just not happy. They are famous, they're powerful, they're wealthy, but their mind is afflicted by so much suffering, so much suffering. And we can see that this is the case actually. And so, we see that both those who have very little as well as those who have a lot, suffer. Again, why is it that those who have so much in terms of wealth, in terms of power, in terms of possessions, why do they suffer? It's because of their attachments, their attachments and their anger, attachment and aversion. And where does that come from? That comes from delusion, the delusion, the ignorance of not knowing, right? Because when one is attached and caught up in aversion, then that causes the accumulation of actions, of karma, and the result of that is painful, the result of that is painful, it's suffering. And that suffering has to be experienced by oneself, the person who engaged in that kind of action, that kind of mindset. So we know that the cause of suffering is attachment and aversion and delusion. And yet, sometimes even while knowing that, we still engage in those actions, right? We still get caught up, we still fall under the sway of our attachments, of our aggression and delusion. Of course it's the case that people who don't know that that's the cause of suffering do those things, of course, right? But even when we know, we still find ourselves caught under the sway of those afflictions. And it's not just that attachment brings suffering and that aggression brings suffering. Attachment itself is suffering, it's painful. And anger is painful, anger itself is painful, anger itself is a form of suffering. Where do we suffer? Where does that suffering manifest? It manifests in our body and in our mind, both physically and mentally. And so this is why we make the prayer, may all beings be happy and have all of the causes of happiness, the causes of happiness both temporarily, like right now, and also the causes of future happiness, even for temporary happiness, not just ultimate happiness, even just for temporary happiness, it has to come about from a cause, just not uncaused. It has to have some kind of cause. And what is the cause of happiness just right at this very moment? It's love and compassion, right? Love and compassion. Love and compassion when we feel that, when we really genuinely give rise to that, then that brings happiness to ourselves, it also brings happiness to others, it brings happiness to anyone, everyone who's around us, when we really feel genuine love and compassion. Honestly, you know, all of you who are here right now, you're saying, oh, it's so nice to be here, I'm so happy to be here, it's so enjoyable. Why is that happening? Why do you feel like that when you're here? It's actually because you're getting along. It's because you love and care for each other and you're getting along with one another. That's where that comes from. There's a lot of different kinds of people here from different countries who speak different languages with different cultural backgrounds. Why is it so nice to be here together, all of us? It's nice and we're enjoying it because we get along, that's why, right?
And we get along because of care, love and care. So this is what creates the circumstances for being happy. In fact, that kind of love and getting along with others, that is itself virtue. That is a form of virtue. And the degree to which that we don't get along with other people, as much as we don't get along and have difficulty in our relationships, to that degree, we feel unhappy. That always creates a sense of unhappiness and suffering. In a worldly context, too. We're not talking about just in a dharmic context, right? And so that's why love and compassion and care and getting along with one another is so important. It's a cause for worldly happiness and it's also a cause that creates the circumstances to bring about wisdom and then omniscience, liberation and omniscience. That also comes from love, out of love. So we make the prayer, may all beings be happy. And may they also have the causes that create happiness, that bring about happiness. And we should make that prayer and that aspiration one-pointedly, really from our heart. It's to wish that all beings are happy, that they are physically comfortable and that they are happy in their minds as well. And that creates actually happiness and ease for us, too. Feeling that kind of wish and that aspiration, creates physical and mental ease. And then we make the prayer and the aspiration, may all beings be free from suffering and its causes. Again, what are the causes for suffering? Even temporary suffering, we're not talking about just long-term, but even immediate suffering. It comes about from attachment, it comes about from aggression, it comes about due to pride, due to jealousy, competitiveness. Each one of those afflictive emotions brings a cascade of others. They come one after the other. What is the real ultimate cause of all of those afflictions? What is the real ultimate cause of actually all of our suffering? Well, it comes from ignorance, the ignorance of not knowing. Not knowing what? Not knowing what we ought to know, what there is to know. And what is that? Well, a presentation about, or an understanding of the outer perceived objects, as well as the inner perceiving mind, and in particular, the path that leads to liberation and omniscience. When we don't know that, when we are ignorant when it comes to that, then we end up on the wrong path, leaving the path behind, and we wander in samsara. So, that is what creates that, right? If we are not confused about what there is to know, we will not be on the wrong path, we will not leave the path behind, and we will not wander in samsara. This is why it is so important, actually, to understand there's of course many topics that we could learn about and come to know, and there's actually a lot of religions too. I mentioned yesterday that it's important for us to have respect for religions in general because they help people, they're beneficial. But here in the context of the Buddha Dharma among religions that exist in the world, if we want to understand the Buddha Dharma, there are clear presentations that can help us to gain real confidence, certainty with respect to the teachings of the Dharma, can be explained very briefly, it can be explained in a medium length, and it can be explained in so great detail, such great detail, that it takes months, and months, and years and years. And it can be explained in that way, very clearly, very lucidly, this too is possible. When we make the aspiration, bring to mind, may all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering, that's something that we should really feel from deep within ourselves. Really from the core of our heart. And if we do that one-pointedly, right, may all beings be happy, truly happy, and have the causes of true happiness. If we feel that so intently that tears form in our eyes, that the hair on our body stands on end, because we're so one-pointedly strong in that aspiration for all beings to be happy and to have the causes that bring about happiness. And to be free from suffering and its causes, this generates the awakened attitude of bodhichitta. It comes out of that kind of aspiration. And when we have genuine bodhichitta, then we can really engage in activities that benefit others. We can really start to help. We can practice generosity that's real generosity, right? Not stingy generosity, not generosity that's somehow caught up in trying to show off to others through what we give. But real generosity. Then we can practice all of the six perfections in this way. We can practice the four means of magnetizing all of the conduct of a bodhisattva in a way that's real, that's genuine. Why? What makes it possible for us to practice bodhisattva conduct genuinely, really authentically? What makes it possible to do this is bodhichitta, love and compassion, bodhichitta. And so here we are talking about may beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering and happiness and may they have happiness and the causes of happiness. And now we know what the causes of suffering are, right? We know that clearly. We're aware very clearly what the causes of happiness are. We know that we have engaged in a lot of negative actions, physically, verbally and mentally. And there are plenty of them that we are aware of that we've engaged in. There's also plenty of negative things we've done that we're not even aware of, we don't even remember. But these kind of actions, these negative actions, they create what we call the karmic obscuration. And actually karma just means action. If you want to talk about accumulating karma, it just means doing things, acting. Each action is a karma. It is a moment of karma, the accumulation of karma. Karma means action. And so, if we want to purify, if we wonder how can I purify all those negative things that I've done with my body, my speech, my mind, how can I purify those negative actions, the obscurations, all the habits, the negative habits that I've accumulated, how can I purify them? There's a really, really powerful way of purifying them, the most powerful. And that is love, compassion, bodhichitta, real love and compassion. That wish, that aspiration, may all beings be free from suffering and its causes. May they all have happiness and all of the causes that bring about happiness. When we have that motivation in a truly pure, genuinely pure way, then we become capable of engaging in action that helps others in an extensive, a very extensive and vast way. We become capable of that kind of action. So bodhichitta, the awakened attitude of bodhichitta is really important. And so when we recite the verses for generating bodhichitta, we do that three times also. And that's again for a reason. It's so that we can bring to mind in a very stable way what we're doing when we generate bodhichitta and to keep that in mind very clearly. So, this also is so important to generate bodhichitta in this way. Short break.
Right time, right dream. Yeah, refreshing (time.)
17:28
In general, when it comes to the Dharma,
What does it do for us?
What does the Dharma do? How does it help?
The Dharma is a remedy
to our afflictive emotions.
It has to be, any Dharma activity,
any Dharma practice that we do.
It must be a remedy to our
negative emotions. That's why
we do all of the Dharma practice
and Dharma activity that we do.
And one practice, that of the seven
branches, is something that's extremely
important, that we recite at the
beginning of the teaching session.
The first branch is that of prostration. And
this is because we make prostrations,
because I and all sentient beings
have engaged in negative actions,
physically, verbally and mentally.
And we have in this
way accumulated a lot of
negativity, a lot of
obscuration, a lot of wrongdoing.
We've broken commitments through
engaging in these kinds of
negativity with our body,
our speech and our mind.
And in order to purify
that and also in order
that the awakened
body, speech and mind,
all of the qualities of the awakened
body, speech and mind of the Buddhas
and Bodhisattvas, residing in the
ten directions in the three times,
in order that those excellent
qualities might be born within
myself as well, born within me
too, quickly, we make prostrations.
So this is very important to prostrate. And
then offering, that's the second branch.
There are lots of kinds of
offerings. There's outer offering,
inner offering, secret offering,
the offering of suchness.
But here in this context
we make a mandala offering.
And the mandala offering
that we recite, right?
The earth is perfumed with
scented water, strewn with flowers,
adorned with Mount Meru, the four
continents, the sun and the moon.
So the four continents,
that's four, at Mount Meru,
that's five, the sun and
the moon, six, seven.
These seven aspects, all of these we bring
to mind and we offer, we offer all of this.
And the reason why we make offerings is
because we are stingy and we are attached.
And in order to remedy our stinginess
and our attachment, we make offerings.
So that in this way, when we
overcome that stinginess
and attachment, it allows for compassion
and wisdom to unfold within us.
In this way then we purify a lot
of negativity and wrongdoing and
obscuration and we also gather merit,
an excellent way of gathering merit.
So this is making offerings
and why that's so important.
And then confession.
Confession is really important.
Confession is something
that if we do it in a
context like here, we are
in a temple setting, right?
There are images, representations of awakened
body, speech and mind, there are lamas,
there are monastics, there are our dharma
brothers and sisters, our vajra siblings.
And in the presence of such practitioners,
then, if we make confession, bring to mind
all of the negative actions that we've engaged
in since beginningless time in Samsara.
We have engaged in physical
negative actions, verbal ones,
and mental ones, since
beginningless time in Samsara.
If we bring those to mind and
confess them, it's said that even a small
negative deed cannot be purified,
if we don't regret it and confess it.
But even a great heavy
negative karma, a negative action
can be purified, if we
sincerely regret and confess.
And so in this way
then, it's said that there
are no good qualities
to bad deeds, except one.
They can be purified through
confession, through regret and confession.
So in some sense we could say that's
the only good quality of negative actions.
And then, rejoicing, right? So prostration,
offering, confession and then rejoicing.
Rejoicing here is bringing to mind all
of the virtuous actions, the good, kind,
altruistic actions that have been engaged
in by all of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.
But not just the Buddhas
and Bodhisattvas,
even ordinary sentient
beings, ordinary beings.
All of the goodness that we have engaged
in, all of the good things that all beings
have engaged in, the beneficial activity
that has been engaged in by all beings.
If we rejoice in that, then there is a
tremendous amount of benefit in doing so.
It's very powerful actually
to rejoice in the goodness
of everyone, all the goodness
that has been engaged in.
And it creates actually a very
important habit, habitual pattern
within ourselves, a habit towards virtue
when we rejoice in the virtue of others.
And then we make the
request to the teacher
to turn the wheel of Dharma,
to teach the Dharma.
So, again we prostrate, we
offer, we confess, we rejoice
and then we request the turning
of the wheel of the Dharma.
And this is in order to
clear away the darkness of
ignorance, to clear away
the darkness of ignorance.
When we are on the wrong path or leave
the path behind, we wander in samsara.
And in order to remedy
that situation, we ask
the teacher to teach, to
turn the wheel of Dharma.
And then we request the
teacher not to pass into Nirvana.
This again is so important
because we need to have the
darkness of our wrong
views cleared away, dispelled.
And in order that we don't get
caught up in these kind of wrong views,
we request the teacher to remain
in the world, not to pass into Nirvana.
And then, we dedicate, we dedicate
the virtue that has been accumulated.
And there are many,
many different ways of
accumulating virtue, of
accumulating virtuous actions.
But here we are in the
context of Dharma teaching.
And as I mentioned to you
yesterday, that is one of the
most meritorious, most
virtuous things that can happen.
Because, as I mentioned,
it clears away the
darkness of ignorance
in the minds of beings.
And so, the wisdom that arises
from listening to the teachings
and contemplating them is
very precious and important.
And so in this way then,
it can purify actually,
clear away the negativity that we have
accumulated with our body, our speech
and our mind and turn us physically,
verbally and mentally towards virtue.
And so in this way then, the
merit, the virtue that comes about
through listening to the teachings
and all merit that we engage in,
we should dedicate
it to the attainment of
liberation and omniscience
of all sentient beings.
Because that virtue can actually
bring us, it can create the circumstances
that allow us to attain that result
of liberation and omniscience.
And therefore listening to the
teachings and contemplating them,
is extremely important,
it's extremely important.
And this specific kind of
virtue is particularly powerful.
So then that's the seventh
branch of dedicating.
These seven branches are
really important practices for us.
When we request the teachers not to pass into nirvana, another benefit is that, that prevents us from following wrong teachers and from spending time around non-virtuous company. So this is another benefit. When it comes to taking refuge and generating bodhicitta, the seven branch practice and so on, these are things that we do again and again and again and again. And there's a reason for that. When we take refuge in the three jewels, we are purifying the negativity that we have accumulated in the past through not respecting, not having faith in, looking wrongly upon the three jewels, or not knowing their excellent qualities. In particular, not being interested in the Dharma. If we're not interested in the Dharma, then we won't learn the Dharma, and then we won't know the Dharma, and then we won't practice the Dharma. And if we don't practice the Dharma, then we don't attain liberation and omniscience. And so taking refuge in the three jewels is a way of remedying that kind of negativity, which we may have engaged in in the past. And this is something that we repeat again and again and again. In particular, when we take refuge in the Buddha, what we are doing is bringing to mind the excellent qualities, the positive qualities of the Buddha, and the kindness, actually, of the Buddha. When we recall this and bring this to mind, then it also creates the circumstances for, for us to become Buddhas ourselves in the future. So, we're creating the positive circumstances for that to come about. And it prevents us, also, taking refuge in the Buddha, likewise, prevents us from following after wrong teachers, teachers who are not leading in the correct direction. So refuge is very important. And so is taking refuge in the Dharma. So taking refuge in the Buddha, of course, is important, but also in the Dharma, remembering the excellent qualities of the Buddha Dharma, remembering the kindness, actually, of the Dharma. And understanding that, if we take refuge in the Dharma, that kind of refuge actually makes it easier for us to connect more directly and understand more easily the vast and profound teachings of the Dharma. And also to not be so interested in things that aren't Dharma, in terms of topics of knowledge, right? There's other things that we can study. Some of them are good, some of them are not very good, some of them are harmful. And taking refuge in the Dharma can create the circumstances for us to lose interest in those other things that we might otherwise be interested in, which are harmful. So taking refuge in the Dharma is very important for that reason. And taking refuge in the Sangha is also really important. In general, we take refuge, of course, in the Bodhisattvas, the Buddhas, the Bodhisattvas who are residing on the Bodhisattva grounds, the Bhumis, also the Sangha of Arhats, these practitioners also, great practitioners who avoid, who refrain from the ten non-virtues, who practice the ten virtues, who cultivate love and compassion, and bodhichitta who train in shamatha, who train in vipassana, who cultivate the stages of practice of the generation stage, the perfection stage. When we take refuge in this kind of sangha, then it creates the circumstances that we too, can become like them, that we too can take up those practices and follow that same, that very same path, become male and female bodhisattvas. So, there's a great benefit actually in taking refuge in the sangha. Likewise, it creates the conditions that we don't get caught up in non-virtuous friends spending time hanging around in non-virtuous friendships. So, this kind of taking refuge in the sangha has this kind of benefit. Actually, there's quite a lot of reasons why we take refuge and, if we know them, when we recite just these few lines, I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the Dharma, I take refuge in the sangha, just reciting that. And we do it three times, we do it again and again. There's a reason, why we do it three times. It's because we want to make sure that we are bringing to mind in a very stable way what we're actually saying. That's important that we're not just saying the words. The same goes for bodhichitta, in order that we're really remembering and bringing to mind what we're doing when we recite the lines for generating the awakened attitude of bodhichitta. There's a reason why we repeat these things. It's a really important reason. So, refuge and bodhichitta, in very brief, we can explain in those ways, just mentioned.
So I explained just now a little bit about the benefits of refuge. But what about bodhichitta, generating bodhichitta? We bring to mind the idea, may all beings be happy and have the causes of happiness. We shouldn't just say the words, we have to really bring to mind what this means. Really keep this in mind. If we think about it for a moment, all sentient beings suffer. Those who have a lot suffer, those who have very little, they also suffer. If you just take a look actually, you can see that even those who outwardly at first glance seem to have it all. They have all of the resources that they need, they have wealth, they have power, they have fame perhaps. But when you look a little bit more closely, you see that they experience so much mental suffering, so much mental suffering. They're proud, they're jealous, they're competitive, they're greedy, arrogant, caught up in all of these afflictive emotions. Their mind is so tight, so rigid, so unhappy actually, so bound and caught up in pride and jealousy and competitiveness. If we look at someone who doesn't have much, perhaps the cause of their happiness is that they just don't have enough to even get by, right? They don't have enough food, they don't have enough to eat and drink, they don't have a place to stay. Sometimes someone like that, they simply get what they need to be okay, then they're quite happy actually, right? But then you look at people who have everything and somehow they're just not happy. They are famous, they're powerful, they're wealthy, but their mind is afflicted by so much suffering, so much suffering. And we can see that this is the case actually. And so, we see that both those who have very little as well as those who have a lot, suffer. Again, why is it that those who have so much in terms of wealth, in terms of power, in terms of possessions, why do they suffer? It's because of their attachments, their attachments and their anger, attachment and aversion. And where does that come from? That comes from delusion, the delusion, the ignorance of not knowing, right? Because when one is attached and caught up in aversion, then that causes the accumulation of actions, of karma, and the result of that is painful, the result of that is painful, it's suffering. And that suffering has to be experienced by oneself, the person who engaged in that kind of action, that kind of mindset. So we know that the cause of suffering is attachment and aversion and delusion. And yet, sometimes even while knowing that, we still engage in those actions, right? We still get caught up, we still fall under the sway of our attachments, of our aggression and delusion. Of course it's the case that people who don't know that that's the cause of suffering do those things, of course, right? But even when we know, we still find ourselves caught under the sway of those afflictions. And it's not just that attachment brings suffering and that aggression brings suffering. Attachment itself is suffering, it's painful. And anger is painful, anger itself is painful, anger itself is a form of suffering. Where do we suffer? Where does that suffering manifest? It manifests in our body and in our mind, both physically and mentally. And so this is why we make the prayer, may all beings be happy and have all of the causes of happiness, the causes of happiness both temporarily, like right now, and also the causes of future happiness, even for temporary happiness, not just ultimate happiness, even just for temporary happiness, it has to come about from a cause, just not uncaused. It has to have some kind of cause. And what is the cause of happiness just right at this very moment? It's love and compassion, right? Love and compassion. Love and compassion when we feel that, when we really genuinely give rise to that, then that brings happiness to ourselves, it also brings happiness to others, it brings happiness to anyone, everyone who's around us, when we really feel genuine love and compassion. Honestly, you know, all of you who are here right now, you're saying, oh, it's so nice to be here, I'm so happy to be here, it's so enjoyable. Why is that happening? Why do you feel like that when you're here? It's actually because you're getting along. It's because you love and care for each other and you're getting along with one another. That's where that comes from. There's a lot of different kinds of people here from different countries who speak different languages with different cultural backgrounds. Why is it so nice to be here together, all of us? It's nice and we're enjoying it because we get along, that's why, right?
And we get along because of care, love and care. So this is what creates the circumstances for being happy. In fact, that kind of love and getting along with others, that is itself virtue. That is a form of virtue. And the degree to which that we don't get along with other people, as much as we don't get along and have difficulty in our relationships, to that degree, we feel unhappy. That always creates a sense of unhappiness and suffering. In a worldly context, too. We're not talking about just in a dharmic context, right? And so that's why love and compassion and care and getting along with one another is so important. It's a cause for worldly happiness and it's also a cause that creates the circumstances to bring about wisdom and then omniscience, liberation and omniscience. That also comes from love, out of love. So we make the prayer, may all beings be happy. And may they also have the causes that create happiness, that bring about happiness. And we should make that prayer and that aspiration one-pointedly, really from our heart. It's to wish that all beings are happy, that they are physically comfortable and that they are happy in their minds as well. And that creates actually happiness and ease for us, too. Feeling that kind of wish and that aspiration, creates physical and mental ease. And then we make the prayer and the aspiration, may all beings be free from suffering and its causes. Again, what are the causes for suffering? Even temporary suffering, we're not talking about just long-term, but even immediate suffering. It comes about from attachment, it comes about from aggression, it comes about due to pride, due to jealousy, competitiveness. Each one of those afflictive emotions brings a cascade of others. They come one after the other. What is the real ultimate cause of all of those afflictions? What is the real ultimate cause of actually all of our suffering? Well, it comes from ignorance, the ignorance of not knowing. Not knowing what? Not knowing what we ought to know, what there is to know. And what is that? Well, a presentation about, or an understanding of the outer perceived objects, as well as the inner perceiving mind, and in particular, the path that leads to liberation and omniscience. When we don't know that, when we are ignorant when it comes to that, then we end up on the wrong path, leaving the path behind, and we wander in samsara. So, that is what creates that, right? If we are not confused about what there is to know, we will not be on the wrong path, we will not leave the path behind, and we will not wander in samsara. This is why it is so important, actually, to understand there's of course many topics that we could learn about and come to know, and there's actually a lot of religions too. I mentioned yesterday that it's important for us to have respect for religions in general because they help people, they're beneficial. But here in the context of the Buddha Dharma among religions that exist in the world, if we want to understand the Buddha Dharma, there are clear presentations that can help us to gain real confidence, certainty with respect to the teachings of the Dharma, can be explained very briefly, it can be explained in a medium length, and it can be explained in so great detail, such great detail, that it takes months, and months, and years and years. And it can be explained in that way, very clearly, very lucidly, this too is possible. When we make the aspiration, bring to mind, may all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering, that's something that we should really feel from deep within ourselves. Really from the core of our heart. And if we do that one-pointedly, right, may all beings be happy, truly happy, and have the causes of true happiness. If we feel that so intently that tears form in our eyes, that the hair on our body stands on end, because we're so one-pointedly strong in that aspiration for all beings to be happy and to have the causes that bring about happiness. And to be free from suffering and its causes, this generates the awakened attitude of bodhichitta. It comes out of that kind of aspiration. And when we have genuine bodhichitta, then we can really engage in activities that benefit others. We can really start to help. We can practice generosity that's real generosity, right? Not stingy generosity, not generosity that's somehow caught up in trying to show off to others through what we give. But real generosity. Then we can practice all of the six perfections in this way. We can practice the four means of magnetizing all of the conduct of a bodhisattva in a way that's real, that's genuine. Why? What makes it possible for us to practice bodhisattva conduct genuinely, really authentically? What makes it possible to do this is bodhichitta, love and compassion, bodhichitta. And so here we are talking about may beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering and happiness and may they have happiness and the causes of happiness. And now we know what the causes of suffering are, right? We know that clearly. We're aware very clearly what the causes of happiness are. We know that we have engaged in a lot of negative actions, physically, verbally and mentally. And there are plenty of them that we are aware of that we've engaged in. There's also plenty of negative things we've done that we're not even aware of, we don't even remember. But these kind of actions, these negative actions, they create what we call the karmic obscuration. And actually karma just means action. If you want to talk about accumulating karma, it just means doing things, acting. Each action is a karma. It is a moment of karma, the accumulation of karma. Karma means action. And so, if we want to purify, if we wonder how can I purify all those negative things that I've done with my body, my speech, my mind, how can I purify those negative actions, the obscurations, all the habits, the negative habits that I've accumulated, how can I purify them? There's a really, really powerful way of purifying them, the most powerful. And that is love, compassion, bodhichitta, real love and compassion. That wish, that aspiration, may all beings be free from suffering and its causes. May they all have happiness and all of the causes that bring about happiness. When we have that motivation in a truly pure, genuinely pure way, then we become capable of engaging in action that helps others in an extensive, a very extensive and vast way. We become capable of that kind of action. So bodhichitta, the awakened attitude of bodhichitta is really important. And so when we recite the verses for generating bodhichitta, we do that three times also. And that's again for a reason. It's so that we can bring to mind in a very stable way what we're doing when we generate bodhichitta and to keep that in mind very clearly. So, this also is so important to generate bodhichitta in this way. Short break.
Right time, right dream. Yeah, refreshing (time.)
When we request the teachers not to pass into nirvana, another benefit is that, that prevents us from following wrong teachers and from spending time around non-virtuous company. So this is another benefit. When it comes to taking refuge and generating bodhicitta, the seven branch practice and so on, these are things that we do again and again and again and again. And there's a reason for that. When we take refuge in the three jewels, we are purifying the negativity that we have accumulated in the past through not respecting, not having faith in, looking wrongly upon the three jewels, or not knowing their excellent qualities. In particular, not being interested in the Dharma. If we're not interested in the Dharma, then we won't learn the Dharma, and then we won't know the Dharma, and then we won't practice the Dharma. And if we don't practice the Dharma, then we don't attain liberation and omniscience. And so taking refuge in the three jewels is a way of remedying that kind of negativity, which we may have engaged in in the past. And this is something that we repeat again and again and again. In particular, when we take refuge in the Buddha, what we are doing is bringing to mind the excellent qualities, the positive qualities of the Buddha, and the kindness, actually, of the Buddha. When we recall this and bring this to mind, then it also creates the circumstances for, for us to become Buddhas ourselves in the future. So, we're creating the positive circumstances for that to come about. And it prevents us, also, taking refuge in the Buddha, likewise, prevents us from following after wrong teachers, teachers who are not leading in the correct direction. So refuge is very important. And so is taking refuge in the Dharma. So taking refuge in the Buddha, of course, is important, but also in the Dharma, remembering the excellent qualities of the Buddha Dharma, remembering the kindness, actually, of the Dharma. And understanding that, if we take refuge in the Dharma, that kind of refuge actually makes it easier for us to connect more directly and understand more easily the vast and profound teachings of the Dharma. And also to not be so interested in things that aren't Dharma, in terms of topics of knowledge, right? There's other things that we can study. Some of them are good, some of them are not very good, some of them are harmful. And taking refuge in the Dharma can create the circumstances for us to lose interest in those other things that we might otherwise be interested in, which are harmful. So taking refuge in the Dharma is very important for that reason. And taking refuge in the Sangha is also really important. In general, we take refuge, of course, in the Bodhisattvas, the Buddhas, the Bodhisattvas who are residing on the Bodhisattva grounds, the Bhumis, also the Sangha of Arhats, these practitioners also, great practitioners who avoid, who refrain from the ten non-virtues, who practice the ten virtues, who cultivate love and compassion, and bodhichitta who train in shamatha, who train in vipassana, who cultivate the stages of practice of the generation stage, the perfection stage. When we take refuge in this kind of sangha, then it creates the circumstances that we too, can become like them, that we too can take up those practices and follow that same, that very same path, become male and female bodhisattvas. So, there's a great benefit actually in taking refuge in the sangha. Likewise, it creates the conditions that we don't get caught up in non-virtuous friends spending time hanging around in non-virtuous friendships. So, this kind of taking refuge in the sangha has this kind of benefit. Actually, there's quite a lot of reasons why we take refuge and, if we know them, when we recite just these few lines, I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the Dharma, I take refuge in the sangha, just reciting that. And we do it three times, we do it again and again. There's a reason, why we do it three times. It's because we want to make sure that we are bringing to mind in a very stable way what we're actually saying. That's important that we're not just saying the words. The same goes for bodhichitta, in order that we're really remembering and bringing to mind what we're doing when we recite the lines for generating the awakened attitude of bodhichitta. There's a reason why we repeat these things. It's a really important reason. So, refuge and bodhichitta, in very brief, we can explain in those ways, just mentioned.
So I explained just now a little bit about the benefits of refuge. But what about bodhichitta, generating bodhichitta? We bring to mind the idea, may all beings be happy and have the causes of happiness. We shouldn't just say the words, we have to really bring to mind what this means. Really keep this in mind. If we think about it for a moment, all sentient beings suffer. Those who have a lot suffer, those who have very little, they also suffer. If you just take a look actually, you can see that even those who outwardly at first glance seem to have it all. They have all of the resources that they need, they have wealth, they have power, they have fame perhaps. But when you look a little bit more closely, you see that they experience so much mental suffering, so much mental suffering. They're proud, they're jealous, they're competitive, they're greedy, arrogant, caught up in all of these afflictive emotions. Their mind is so tight, so rigid, so unhappy actually, so bound and caught up in pride and jealousy and competitiveness. If we look at someone who doesn't have much, perhaps the cause of their happiness is that they just don't have enough to even get by, right? They don't have enough food, they don't have enough to eat and drink, they don't have a place to stay. Sometimes someone like that, they simply get what they need to be okay, then they're quite happy actually, right? But then you look at people who have everything and somehow they're just not happy. They are famous, they're powerful, they're wealthy, but their mind is afflicted by so much suffering, so much suffering. And we can see that this is the case actually. And so, we see that both those who have very little as well as those who have a lot, suffer. Again, why is it that those who have so much in terms of wealth, in terms of power, in terms of possessions, why do they suffer? It's because of their attachments, their attachments and their anger, attachment and aversion. And where does that come from? That comes from delusion, the delusion, the ignorance of not knowing, right? Because when one is attached and caught up in aversion, then that causes the accumulation of actions, of karma, and the result of that is painful, the result of that is painful, it's suffering. And that suffering has to be experienced by oneself, the person who engaged in that kind of action, that kind of mindset. So we know that the cause of suffering is attachment and aversion and delusion. And yet, sometimes even while knowing that, we still engage in those actions, right? We still get caught up, we still fall under the sway of our attachments, of our aggression and delusion. Of course it's the case that people who don't know that that's the cause of suffering do those things, of course, right? But even when we know, we still find ourselves caught under the sway of those afflictions. And it's not just that attachment brings suffering and that aggression brings suffering. Attachment itself is suffering, it's painful. And anger is painful, anger itself is painful, anger itself is a form of suffering. Where do we suffer? Where does that suffering manifest? It manifests in our body and in our mind, both physically and mentally. And so this is why we make the prayer, may all beings be happy and have all of the causes of happiness, the causes of happiness both temporarily, like right now, and also the causes of future happiness, even for temporary happiness, not just ultimate happiness, even just for temporary happiness, it has to come about from a cause, just not uncaused. It has to have some kind of cause. And what is the cause of happiness just right at this very moment? It's love and compassion, right? Love and compassion. Love and compassion when we feel that, when we really genuinely give rise to that, then that brings happiness to ourselves, it also brings happiness to others, it brings happiness to anyone, everyone who's around us, when we really feel genuine love and compassion. Honestly, you know, all of you who are here right now, you're saying, oh, it's so nice to be here, I'm so happy to be here, it's so enjoyable. Why is that happening? Why do you feel like that when you're here? It's actually because you're getting along. It's because you love and care for each other and you're getting along with one another. That's where that comes from. There's a lot of different kinds of people here from different countries who speak different languages with different cultural backgrounds. Why is it so nice to be here together, all of us? It's nice and we're enjoying it because we get along, that's why, right?
And we get along because of care, love and care. So this is what creates the circumstances for being happy. In fact, that kind of love and getting along with others, that is itself virtue. That is a form of virtue. And the degree to which that we don't get along with other people, as much as we don't get along and have difficulty in our relationships, to that degree, we feel unhappy. That always creates a sense of unhappiness and suffering. In a worldly context, too. We're not talking about just in a dharmic context, right? And so that's why love and compassion and care and getting along with one another is so important. It's a cause for worldly happiness and it's also a cause that creates the circumstances to bring about wisdom and then omniscience, liberation and omniscience. That also comes from love, out of love. So we make the prayer, may all beings be happy. And may they also have the causes that create happiness, that bring about happiness. And we should make that prayer and that aspiration one-pointedly, really from our heart. It's to wish that all beings are happy, that they are physically comfortable and that they are happy in their minds as well. And that creates actually happiness and ease for us, too. Feeling that kind of wish and that aspiration, creates physical and mental ease. And then we make the prayer and the aspiration, may all beings be free from suffering and its causes. Again, what are the causes for suffering? Even temporary suffering, we're not talking about just long-term, but even immediate suffering. It comes about from attachment, it comes about from aggression, it comes about due to pride, due to jealousy, competitiveness. Each one of those afflictive emotions brings a cascade of others. They come one after the other. What is the real ultimate cause of all of those afflictions? What is the real ultimate cause of actually all of our suffering? Well, it comes from ignorance, the ignorance of not knowing. Not knowing what? Not knowing what we ought to know, what there is to know. And what is that? Well, a presentation about, or an understanding of the outer perceived objects, as well as the inner perceiving mind, and in particular, the path that leads to liberation and omniscience. When we don't know that, when we are ignorant when it comes to that, then we end up on the wrong path, leaving the path behind, and we wander in samsara. So, that is what creates that, right? If we are not confused about what there is to know, we will not be on the wrong path, we will not leave the path behind, and we will not wander in samsara. This is why it is so important, actually, to understand there's of course many topics that we could learn about and come to know, and there's actually a lot of religions too. I mentioned yesterday that it's important for us to have respect for religions in general because they help people, they're beneficial. But here in the context of the Buddha Dharma among religions that exist in the world, if we want to understand the Buddha Dharma, there are clear presentations that can help us to gain real confidence, certainty with respect to the teachings of the Dharma, can be explained very briefly, it can be explained in a medium length, and it can be explained in so great detail, such great detail, that it takes months, and months, and years and years. And it can be explained in that way, very clearly, very lucidly, this too is possible. When we make the aspiration, bring to mind, may all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering, that's something that we should really feel from deep within ourselves. Really from the core of our heart. And if we do that one-pointedly, right, may all beings be happy, truly happy, and have the causes of true happiness. If we feel that so intently that tears form in our eyes, that the hair on our body stands on end, because we're so one-pointedly strong in that aspiration for all beings to be happy and to have the causes that bring about happiness. And to be free from suffering and its causes, this generates the awakened attitude of bodhichitta. It comes out of that kind of aspiration. And when we have genuine bodhichitta, then we can really engage in activities that benefit others. We can really start to help. We can practice generosity that's real generosity, right? Not stingy generosity, not generosity that's somehow caught up in trying to show off to others through what we give. But real generosity. Then we can practice all of the six perfections in this way. We can practice the four means of magnetizing all of the conduct of a bodhisattva in a way that's real, that's genuine. Why? What makes it possible for us to practice bodhisattva conduct genuinely, really authentically? What makes it possible to do this is bodhichitta, love and compassion, bodhichitta. And so here we are talking about may beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering and happiness and may they have happiness and the causes of happiness. And now we know what the causes of suffering are, right? We know that clearly. We're aware very clearly what the causes of happiness are. We know that we have engaged in a lot of negative actions, physically, verbally and mentally. And there are plenty of them that we are aware of that we've engaged in. There's also plenty of negative things we've done that we're not even aware of, we don't even remember. But these kind of actions, these negative actions, they create what we call the karmic obscuration. And actually karma just means action. If you want to talk about accumulating karma, it just means doing things, acting. Each action is a karma. It is a moment of karma, the accumulation of karma. Karma means action. And so, if we want to purify, if we wonder how can I purify all those negative things that I've done with my body, my speech, my mind, how can I purify those negative actions, the obscurations, all the habits, the negative habits that I've accumulated, how can I purify them? There's a really, really powerful way of purifying them, the most powerful. And that is love, compassion, bodhichitta, real love and compassion. That wish, that aspiration, may all beings be free from suffering and its causes. May they all have happiness and all of the causes that bring about happiness. When we have that motivation in a truly pure, genuinely pure way, then we become capable of engaging in action that helps others in an extensive, a very extensive and vast way. We become capable of that kind of action. So bodhichitta, the awakened attitude of bodhichitta is really important. And so when we recite the verses for generating bodhichitta, we do that three times also. And that's again for a reason. It's so that we can bring to mind in a very stable way what we're doing when we generate bodhichitta and to keep that in mind very clearly. So, this also is so important to generate bodhichitta in this way. Short break.
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In general, when it comes to the Dharma,
What does it do for us? What does the Dharma do? How does it help? The Dharma is a remedy to our afflictive emotions. It has to be, any Dharma activity, any Dharma practice that we do. It must be a remedy to our negative emotions. That's why we do all of the Dharma practice and Dharma activity that we do. And one practice, that of the seven branches, is something that's extremely important, that we recite at the beginning of the teaching session. The first branch is that of prostration. And this is because we make prostrations, because I and all sentient beings have engaged in negative actions, physically, verbally and mentally. And we have in this way accumulated a lot of negativity, a lot of obscuration, a lot of wrongdoing. We've broken commitments through engaging in these kinds of negativity with our body, our speech and our mind. And in order to purify that and also in order that the awakened body, speech and mind, all of the qualities of the awakened body, speech and mind of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, residing in the ten directions in the three times, in order that those excellent qualities might be born within myself as well, born within me too, quickly, we make prostrations. So this is very important to prostrate. And then offering, that's the second branch. There are lots of kinds of offerings. There's outer offering, inner offering, secret offering, the offering of suchness. But here in this context we make a mandala offering. And the mandala offering that we recite, right? The earth is perfumed with scented water, strewn with flowers, adorned with Mount Meru, the four continents, the sun and the moon. So the four continents, that's four, at Mount Meru, that's five, the sun and the moon, six, seven. These seven aspects, all of these we bring to mind and we offer, we offer all of this. And the reason why we make offerings is because we are stingy and we are attached. And in order to remedy our stinginess and our attachment, we make offerings. So that in this way, when we overcome that stinginess and attachment, it allows for compassion and wisdom to unfold within us. In this way then we purify a lot of negativity and wrongdoing and obscuration and we also gather merit, an excellent way of gathering merit. So this is making offerings and why that's so important. And then confession. Confession is really important. Confession is something that if we do it in a context like here, we are in a temple setting, right? There are images, representations of awakened body, speech and mind, there are lamas, there are monastics, there are our dharma brothers and sisters, our vajra siblings. And in the presence of such practitioners, then, if we make confession, bring to mind all of the negative actions that we've engaged in since beginningless time in Samsara. We have engaged in physical negative actions, verbal ones, and mental ones, since beginningless time in Samsara. If we bring those to mind and confess them, it's said that even a small negative deed cannot be purified, if we don't regret it and confess it. But even a great heavy negative karma, a negative action can be purified, if we sincerely regret and confess. And so in this way then, it's said that there are no good qualities to bad deeds, except one. They can be purified through confession, through regret and confession. So in some sense we could say that's the only good quality of negative actions. And then, rejoicing, right? So prostration, offering, confession and then rejoicing. Rejoicing here is bringing to mind all of the virtuous actions, the good, kind, altruistic actions that have been engaged in by all of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. But not just the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, even ordinary sentient beings, ordinary beings. All of the goodness that we have engaged in, all of the good things that all beings have engaged in, the beneficial activity that has been engaged in by all beings. If we rejoice in that, then there is a tremendous amount of benefit in doing so. It's very powerful actually to rejoice in the goodness of everyone, all the goodness that has been engaged in. And it creates actually a very important habit, habitual pattern within ourselves, a habit towards virtue when we rejoice in the virtue of others. And then we make the request to the teacher to turn the wheel of Dharma, to teach the Dharma. So, again we prostrate, we offer, we confess, we rejoice and then we request the turning of the wheel of the Dharma. And this is in order to clear away the darkness of ignorance, to clear away the darkness of ignorance. When we are on the wrong path or leave the path behind, we wander in samsara. And in order to remedy that situation, we ask the teacher to teach, to turn the wheel of Dharma. And then we request the teacher not to pass into Nirvana. This again is so important because we need to have the darkness of our wrong views cleared away, dispelled. And in order that we don't get caught up in these kind of wrong views, we request the teacher to remain in the world, not to pass into Nirvana. And then, we dedicate, we dedicate the virtue that has been accumulated. And there are many, many different ways of accumulating virtue, of accumulating virtuous actions. But here we are in the context of Dharma teaching. And as I mentioned to you yesterday, that is one of the most meritorious, most virtuous things that can happen. Because, as I mentioned, it clears away the darkness of ignorance in the minds of beings. And so, the wisdom that arises from listening to the teachings and contemplating them is very precious and important. And so in this way then, it can purify actually, clear away the negativity that we have accumulated with our body, our speech and our mind and turn us physically, verbally and mentally towards virtue. And so in this way then, the merit, the virtue that comes about through listening to the teachings and all merit that we engage in, we should dedicate it to the attainment of liberation and omniscience of all sentient beings. Because that virtue can actually bring us, it can create the circumstances that allow us to attain that result of liberation and omniscience. And therefore listening to the teachings and contemplating them, is extremely important, it's extremely important. And this specific kind of virtue is particularly powerful. So then that's the seventh branch of dedicating. These seven branches are really important practices for us.
When we request the teachers not to pass into nirvana, another benefit is that, that prevents us from following wrong teachers and from spending time around non-virtuous company. So this is another benefit. When it comes to taking refuge and generating bodhicitta, the seven branch practice and so on, these are things that we do again and again and again and again. And there's a reason for that. When we take refuge in the three jewels, we are purifying the negativity that we have accumulated in the past through not respecting, not having faith in, looking wrongly upon the three jewels, or not knowing their excellent qualities. In particular, not being interested in the Dharma. If we're not interested in the Dharma, then we won't learn the Dharma, and then we won't know the Dharma, and then we won't practice the Dharma. And if we don't practice the Dharma, then we don't attain liberation and omniscience. And so taking refuge in the three jewels is a way of remedying that kind of negativity, which we may have engaged in in the past. And this is something that we repeat again and again and again. In particular, when we take refuge in the Buddha, what we are doing is bringing to mind the excellent qualities, the positive qualities of the Buddha, and the kindness, actually, of the Buddha. When we recall this and bring this to mind, then it also creates the circumstances for, for us to become Buddhas ourselves in the future. So, we're creating the positive circumstances for that to come about. And it prevents us, also, taking refuge in the Buddha, likewise, prevents us from following after wrong teachers, teachers who are not leading in the correct direction. So refuge is very important. And so is taking refuge in the Dharma. So taking refuge in the Buddha, of course, is important, but also in the Dharma, remembering the excellent qualities of the Buddha Dharma, remembering the kindness, actually, of the Dharma. And understanding that, if we take refuge in the Dharma, that kind of refuge actually makes it easier for us to connect more directly and understand more easily the vast and profound teachings of the Dharma. And also to not be so interested in things that aren't Dharma, in terms of topics of knowledge, right? There's other things that we can study. Some of them are good, some of them are not very good, some of them are harmful. And taking refuge in the Dharma can create the circumstances for us to lose interest in those other things that we might otherwise be interested in, which are harmful. So taking refuge in the Dharma is very important for that reason. And taking refuge in the Sangha is also really important. In general, we take refuge, of course, in the Bodhisattvas, the Buddhas, the Bodhisattvas who are residing on the Bodhisattva grounds, the Bhumis, also the Sangha of Arhats, these practitioners also, great practitioners who avoid, who refrain from the ten non-virtues, who practice the ten virtues, who cultivate love and compassion, and bodhichitta who train in shamatha, who train in vipassana, who cultivate the stages of practice of the generation stage, the perfection stage. When we take refuge in this kind of sangha, then it creates the circumstances that we too, can become like them, that we too can take up those practices and follow that same, that very same path, become male and female bodhisattvas. So, there's a great benefit actually in taking refuge in the sangha. Likewise, it creates the conditions that we don't get caught up in non-virtuous friends spending time hanging around in non-virtuous friendships. So, this kind of taking refuge in the sangha has this kind of benefit. Actually, there's quite a lot of reasons why we take refuge and, if we know them, when we recite just these few lines, I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the Dharma, I take refuge in the sangha, just reciting that. And we do it three times, we do it again and again. There's a reason, why we do it three times. It's because we want to make sure that we are bringing to mind in a very stable way what we're actually saying. That's important that we're not just saying the words. The same goes for bodhichitta, in order that we're really remembering and bringing to mind what we're doing when we recite the lines for generating the awakened attitude of bodhichitta. There's a reason why we repeat these things. It's a really important reason. So, refuge and bodhichitta, in very brief, we can explain in those ways, just mentioned.
So I explained just now a little bit about the benefits of refuge. But what about bodhichitta, generating bodhichitta? We bring to mind the idea, may all beings be happy and have the causes of happiness. We shouldn't just say the words, we have to really bring to mind what this means. Really keep this in mind. If we think about it for a moment, all sentient beings suffer. Those who have a lot suffer, those who have very little, they also suffer. If you just take a look actually, you can see that even those who outwardly at first glance seem to have it all. They have all of the resources that they need, they have wealth, they have power, they have fame perhaps. But when you look a little bit more closely, you see that they experience so much mental suffering, so much mental suffering. They're proud, they're jealous, they're competitive, they're greedy, arrogant, caught up in all of these afflictive emotions. Their mind is so tight, so rigid, so unhappy actually, so bound and caught up in pride and jealousy and competitiveness. If we look at someone who doesn't have much, perhaps the cause of their happiness is that they just don't have enough to even get by, right? They don't have enough food, they don't have enough to eat and drink, they don't have a place to stay. Sometimes someone like that, they simply get what they need to be okay, then they're quite happy actually, right? But then you look at people who have everything and somehow they're just not happy. They are famous, they're powerful, they're wealthy, but their mind is afflicted by so much suffering, so much suffering. And we can see that this is the case actually. And so, we see that both those who have very little as well as those who have a lot, suffer. Again, why is it that those who have so much in terms of wealth, in terms of power, in terms of possessions, why do they suffer? It's because of their attachments, their attachments and their anger, attachment and aversion. And where does that come from? That comes from delusion, the delusion, the ignorance of not knowing, right? Because when one is attached and caught up in aversion, then that causes the accumulation of actions, of karma, and the result of that is painful, the result of that is painful, it's suffering. And that suffering has to be experienced by oneself, the person who engaged in that kind of action, that kind of mindset. So we know that the cause of suffering is attachment and aversion and delusion. And yet, sometimes even while knowing that, we still engage in those actions, right? We still get caught up, we still fall under the sway of our attachments, of our aggression and delusion. Of course it's the case that people who don't know that that's the cause of suffering do those things, of course, right? But even when we know, we still find ourselves caught under the sway of those afflictions. And it's not just that attachment brings suffering and that aggression brings suffering. Attachment itself is suffering, it's painful. And anger is painful, anger itself is painful, anger itself is a form of suffering. Where do we suffer? Where does that suffering manifest? It manifests in our body and in our mind, both physically and mentally. And so this is why we make the prayer, may all beings be happy and have all of the causes of happiness, the causes of happiness both temporarily, like right now, and also the causes of future happiness, even for temporary happiness, not just ultimate happiness, even just for temporary happiness, it has to come about from a cause, just not uncaused. It has to have some kind of cause. And what is the cause of happiness just right at this very moment? It's love and compassion, right? Love and compassion. Love and compassion when we feel that, when we really genuinely give rise to that, then that brings happiness to ourselves, it also brings happiness to others, it brings happiness to anyone, everyone who's around us, when we really feel genuine love and compassion. Honestly, you know, all of you who are here right now, you're saying, oh, it's so niceto be here, I'm so happy to be here, it's so enjoyable. Why is that happening? Why do you feel like that when you're here? It's actually because you're getting along. It's because you love and care for each other and you're getting along with one another. That's where that comes from. There's a lot of different kinds of people here from different countries who speak different languages with different cultural backgrounds. Why is it so nice to be here together, all of us? It's nice and we're enjoying it because we get along, that's why, right?
And we get along because of care, love and care. So this is what creates the circumstances for being happy. In fact, that kind of love and getting along with others, that is itself virtue. That is a form of virtue. And the degree to which that we don't get along with other people, as much as we don't get along and have difficulty in our relationships, to that degree, we feel unhappy. That always creates a sense of unhappiness and suffering. In a worldly context, too. We're not talking about just in a dharmic context, right? And so that's why love and compassion and care and getting along with one another is so important. It's a cause for worldly happiness and it's also a cause that creates the circumstances to bring about wisdom and then omniscience, liberation and omniscience. That also comes from love, out of love. So we make the prayer, may all beings be happy. And may they also have the causes that create happiness, that bring about happiness. And we should make that prayer and that aspiration one-pointedly, really from our heart.
It's to wish that all beings are happy, that they are physically comfortable and that they are happy in their minds as well. And that creates actually happiness and ease for us, too. Feeling that kind of wish and that aspiration, creates physical and mental ease. And then we make the prayer and the aspiration, may all beings be free from suffering and its causes. Again, what are the causes for suffering? Even temporary suffering, we're not talking about just long-term, but even immediate suffering. It comes about from attachment, it comes about from aggression, it comes about due to pride, due to jealousy, competitiveness. Each one of those afflictive emotions brings a cascade of others. They come one after the other. What is the real ultimate cause of all of those afflictions? What is the real ultimate cause of actually all of our suffering? Well, it comes from ignorance, the ignorance of not knowing. Not knowing what? Not knowing what we ought to know, what there is to know. And what is that? Well, a presentation about, or an understanding of the outer perceived objects, as well as the inner perceiving mind, and in particular, the path that leads to liberation and omniscience. When we don't know that, when we are ignorant when it comes to that, then we end up on the wrong path, leaving the path behind, and we wander in samsara. So, that is what creates that, right? If we are not confused about what there is to know, we will not be on the wrong path, we will not leave the path behind, and we will not wander in samsara. This is why it is so important, actually, to understand there's of course many topics that we could learn about and come to know, and there's actually a lot of religions too. I mentioned yesterday that it's important for us to have respect for religions in general because they help people, they're beneficial. But here in the context of the Buddha Dharma among religions that exist in the world, if we want to understand the Buddha Dharma, there are clear presentations that can help us to gain real confidence, certainty with respect to the teachings of the Dharma, can be explained very briefly, it can be explained in a medium length, and it can be explained in so great detail, such great detail, that it takes months, and months, and years and years. And it can be explained in that way, very clearly, very lucidly, this too is possible. When we make the aspiration, bring to mind, may all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering, that's something that we should really feel from deep within ourselves. Really from the core of our heart. And if we do that one-pointedly, right, may all beings be happy, truly happy, and have the causes of true happiness. If we feel that so intently that tears form in our eyes, that the hair on our body stands on end, because we're so one-pointedly strong in that aspiration for all beings to be happy and to have the causes that bring about happiness. And to be free from suffering and its causes, this generates the awakened attitude of bodhichitta. It comes out of that kind of aspiration. And when we have genuine bodhichitta, then we can really engage in activities that benefit others. We can really start to help. We can practice generosity that's real generosity, right? Not stingy generosity, not generosity that's somehow caught up in trying to show off to others through what we give. But real generosity. Then we can practice all of the six perfections in this way. We can practice the four means of magnetizing all of the conduct of a bodhisattva in a way that's real, that's genuine. Why? What makes it possible for us to practice bodhisattva conduct genuinely, really authentically? What makes it possible to do this is bodhichitta, love and compassion, bodhichitta. And so here we are talking about may beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering and happiness and may they have happiness and the causes of happiness. And now we know what the causes of suffering are, right? We know that clearly. We're aware very clearly what the causes of happiness are. We know that we have engaged in a lot of negative actions, physically, verbally and mentally. And there are plenty of them that we are aware of that we've engaged in. There's also plenty of negative things we've done that we're not even aware of, we don't even remember. But these kind of actions, these negative actions, they create what we call the karmic obscuration. And actually karma justmeans action. If you want to talk about accumulating karma, it just means doing things, acting. Each action is a karma. It is a moment of karma, the accumulation of karma. Karma means action. And so, if we want to purify, if we wonder how can I purify all those negative things that I've done with my body, my speech, my mind, how can I purify those negative actions, the obscurations, all the habits, the negative habits that I've accumulated, how can I purify them? There's a really, really powerful way of purifying them, the most powerful. And that is love, compassion, bodhichitta, real love and compassion. That wish, that aspiration, may all beings be free from suffering and its causes. May they all have happiness and all of the causes that bring about happiness. When we have that motivation in a truly pure, genuinely pure way, then we become capable of engaging in action that helps others in an extensive, a very extensive and vast way. We become capable of that kind of action. So bodhichitta, the awakened attitude of bodhichitta is really important. And so when we recite the verses for generating bodhichitta, we do that three times also. And that's again for a reason. It's so that we can bring to mind in a very stable way what we're doing when we generate bodhichitta and to keep that in mind very clearly. So, this also is so important to generate bodhichitta in this way. Short break.
Right time, right dream.
Yeah, refreshing (time.)
What does it do for us? What does the Dharma do? How does it help? The Dharma is a remedy to our afflictive emotions. It has to be, any Dharma activity, any Dharma practice that we do. It must be a remedy to our negative emotions. That's why we do all of the Dharma practice and Dharma activity that we do. And one practice, that of the seven branches, is something that's extremely important, that we recite at the beginning of the teaching session. The first branch is that of prostration. And this is because we make prostrations, because I and all sentient beings have engaged in negative actions, physically, verbally and mentally. And we have in this way accumulated a lot of negativity, a lot of obscuration, a lot of wrongdoing. We've broken commitments through engaging in these kinds of negativity with our body, our speech and our mind. And in order to purify that and also in order that the awakened body, speech and mind, all of the qualities of the awakened body, speech and mind of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, residing in the ten directions in the three times, in order that those excellent qualities might be born within myself as well, born within me too, quickly, we make prostrations. So this is very important to prostrate. And then offering, that's the second branch. There are lots of kinds of offerings. There's outer offering, inner offering, secret offering, the offering of suchness. But here in this context we make a mandala offering. And the mandala offering that we recite, right? The earth is perfumed with scented water, strewn with flowers, adorned with Mount Meru, the four continents, the sun and the moon. So the four continents, that's four, at Mount Meru, that's five, the sun and the moon, six, seven. These seven aspects, all of these we bring to mind and we offer, we offer all of this. And the reason why we make offerings is because we are stingy and we are attached. And in order to remedy our stinginess and our attachment, we make offerings. So that in this way, when we overcome that stinginess and attachment, it allows for compassion and wisdom to unfold within us. In this way then we purify a lot of negativity and wrongdoing and obscuration and we also gather merit, an excellent way of gathering merit. So this is making offerings and why that's so important. And then confession. Confession is really important. Confession is something that if we do it in a context like here, we are in a temple setting, right? There are images, representations of awakened body, speech and mind, there are lamas, there are monastics, there are our dharma brothers and sisters, our vajra siblings. And in the presence of such practitioners, then, if we make confession, bring to mind all of the negative actions that we've engaged in since beginningless time in Samsara. We have engaged in physical negative actions, verbal ones, and mental ones, since beginningless time in Samsara. If we bring those to mind and confess them, it's said that even a small negative deed cannot be purified, if we don't regret it and confess it. But even a great heavy negative karma, a negative action can be purified, if we sincerely regret and confess. And so in this way then, it's said that there are no good qualities to bad deeds, except one. They can be purified through confession, through regret and confession. So in some sense we could say that's the only good quality of negative actions. And then, rejoicing, right? So prostration, offering, confession and then rejoicing. Rejoicing here is bringing to mind all of the virtuous actions, the good, kind, altruistic actions that have been engaged in by all of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. But not just the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, even ordinary sentient beings, ordinary beings. All of the goodness that we have engaged in, all of the good things that all beings have engaged in, the beneficial activity that has been engaged in by all beings. If we rejoice in that, then there is a tremendous amount of benefit in doing so. It's very powerful actually to rejoice in the goodness of everyone, all the goodness that has been engaged in. And it creates actually a very important habit, habitual pattern within ourselves, a habit towards virtue when we rejoice in the virtue of others. And then we make the request to the teacher to turn the wheel of Dharma, to teach the Dharma. So, again we prostrate, we offer, we confess, we rejoice and then we request the turning of the wheel of the Dharma. And this is in order to clear away the darkness of ignorance, to clear away the darkness of ignorance. When we are on the wrong path or leave the path behind, we wander in samsara. And in order to remedy that situation, we ask the teacher to teach, to turn the wheel of Dharma. And then we request the teacher not to pass into Nirvana. This again is so important because we need to have the darkness of our wrong views cleared away, dispelled. And in order that we don't get caught up in these kind of wrong views, we request the teacher to remain in the world, not to pass into Nirvana. And then, we dedicate, we dedicate the virtue that has been accumulated. And there are many, many different ways of accumulating virtue, of accumulating virtuous actions. But here we are in the context of Dharma teaching. And as I mentioned to you yesterday, that is one of the most meritorious, most virtuous things that can happen. Because, as I mentioned, it clears away the darkness of ignorance in the minds of beings. And so, the wisdom that arises from listening to the teachings and contemplating them is very precious and important. And so in this way then, it can purify actually, clear away the negativity that we have accumulated with our body, our speech and our mind and turn us physically, verbally and mentally towards virtue. And so in this way then, the merit, the virtue that comes about through listening to the teachings and all merit that we engage in, we should dedicate it to the attainment of liberation and omniscience of all sentient beings. Because that virtue can actually bring us, it can create the circumstances that allow us to attain that result of liberation and omniscience. And therefore listening to the teachings and contemplating them, is extremely important, it's extremely important. And this specific kind of virtue is particularly powerful. So then that's the seventh branch of dedicating. These seven branches are really important practices for us.
When we request the teachers not to pass into nirvana, another benefit is that, that prevents us from following wrong teachers and from spending time around non-virtuous company. So this is another benefit. When it comes to taking refuge and generating bodhicitta, the seven branch practice and so on, these are things that we do again and again and again and again. And there's a reason for that. When we take refuge in the three jewels, we are purifying the negativity that we have accumulated in the past through not respecting, not having faith in, looking wrongly upon the three jewels, or not knowing their excellent qualities. In particular, not being interested in the Dharma. If we're not interested in the Dharma, then we won't learn the Dharma, and then we won't know the Dharma, and then we won't practice the Dharma. And if we don't practice the Dharma, then we don't attain liberation and omniscience. And so taking refuge in the three jewels is a way of remedying that kind of negativity, which we may have engaged in in the past. And this is something that we repeat again and again and again. In particular, when we take refuge in the Buddha, what we are doing is bringing to mind the excellent qualities, the positive qualities of the Buddha, and the kindness, actually, of the Buddha. When we recall this and bring this to mind, then it also creates the circumstances for, for us to become Buddhas ourselves in the future. So, we're creating the positive circumstances for that to come about. And it prevents us, also, taking refuge in the Buddha, likewise, prevents us from following after wrong teachers, teachers who are not leading in the correct direction. So refuge is very important. And so is taking refuge in the Dharma. So taking refuge in the Buddha, of course, is important, but also in the Dharma, remembering the excellent qualities of the Buddha Dharma, remembering the kindness, actually, of the Dharma. And understanding that, if we take refuge in the Dharma, that kind of refuge actually makes it easier for us to connect more directly and understand more easily the vast and profound teachings of the Dharma. And also to not be so interested in things that aren't Dharma, in terms of topics of knowledge, right? There's other things that we can study. Some of them are good, some of them are not very good, some of them are harmful. And taking refuge in the Dharma can create the circumstances for us to lose interest in those other things that we might otherwise be interested in, which are harmful. So taking refuge in the Dharma is very important for that reason. And taking refuge in the Sangha is also really important. In general, we take refuge, of course, in the Bodhisattvas, the Buddhas, the Bodhisattvas who are residing on the Bodhisattva grounds, the Bhumis, also the Sangha of Arhats, these practitioners also, great practitioners who avoid, who refrain from the ten non-virtues, who practice the ten virtues, who cultivate love and compassion, and bodhichitta who train in shamatha, who train in vipassana, who cultivate the stages of practice of the generation stage, the perfection stage. When we take refuge in this kind of sangha, then it creates the circumstances that we too, can become like them, that we too can take up those practices and follow that same, that very same path, become male and female bodhisattvas. So, there's a great benefit actually in taking refuge in the sangha. Likewise, it creates the conditions that we don't get caught up in non-virtuous friends spending time hanging around in non-virtuous friendships. So, this kind of taking refuge in the sangha has this kind of benefit. Actually, there's quite a lot of reasons why we take refuge and, if we know them, when we recite just these few lines, I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the Dharma, I take refuge in the sangha, just reciting that. And we do it three times, we do it again and again. There's a reason, why we do it three times. It's because we want to make sure that we are bringing to mind in a very stable way what we're actually saying. That's important that we're not just saying the words. The same goes for bodhichitta, in order that we're really remembering and bringing to mind what we're doing when we recite the lines for generating the awakened attitude of bodhichitta. There's a reason why we repeat these things. It's a really important reason. So, refuge and bodhichitta, in very brief, we can explain in those ways, just mentioned.
So I explained just now a little bit about the benefits of refuge. But what about bodhichitta, generating bodhichitta? We bring to mind the idea, may all beings be happy and have the causes of happiness. We shouldn't just say the words, we have to really bring to mind what this means. Really keep this in mind. If we think about it for a moment, all sentient beings suffer. Those who have a lot suffer, those who have very little, they also suffer. If you just take a look actually, you can see that even those who outwardly at first glance seem to have it all. They have all of the resources that they need, they have wealth, they have power, they have fame perhaps. But when you look a little bit more closely, you see that they experience so much mental suffering, so much mental suffering. They're proud, they're jealous, they're competitive, they're greedy, arrogant, caught up in all of these afflictive emotions. Their mind is so tight, so rigid, so unhappy actually, so bound and caught up in pride and jealousy and competitiveness. If we look at someone who doesn't have much, perhaps the cause of their happiness is that they just don't have enough to even get by, right? They don't have enough food, they don't have enough to eat and drink, they don't have a place to stay. Sometimes someone like that, they simply get what they need to be okay, then they're quite happy actually, right? But then you look at people who have everything and somehow they're just not happy. They are famous, they're powerful, they're wealthy, but their mind is afflicted by so much suffering, so much suffering. And we can see that this is the case actually. And so, we see that both those who have very little as well as those who have a lot, suffer. Again, why is it that those who have so much in terms of wealth, in terms of power, in terms of possessions, why do they suffer? It's because of their attachments, their attachments and their anger, attachment and aversion. And where does that come from? That comes from delusion, the delusion, the ignorance of not knowing, right? Because when one is attached and caught up in aversion, then that causes the accumulation of actions, of karma, and the result of that is painful, the result of that is painful, it's suffering. And that suffering has to be experienced by oneself, the person who engaged in that kind of action, that kind of mindset. So we know that the cause of suffering is attachment and aversion and delusion. And yet, sometimes even while knowing that, we still engage in those actions, right? We still get caught up, we still fall under the sway of our attachments, of our aggression and delusion. Of course it's the case that people who don't know that that's the cause of suffering do those things, of course, right? But even when we know, we still find ourselves caught under the sway of those afflictions. And it's not just that attachment brings suffering and that aggression brings suffering. Attachment itself is suffering, it's painful. And anger is painful, anger itself is painful, anger itself is a form of suffering. Where do we suffer? Where does that suffering manifest? It manifests in our body and in our mind, both physically and mentally. And so this is why we make the prayer, may all beings be happy and have all of the causes of happiness, the causes of happiness both temporarily, like right now, and also the causes of future happiness, even for temporary happiness, not just ultimate happiness, even just for temporary happiness, it has to come about from a cause, just not uncaused. It has to have some kind of cause. And what is the cause of happiness just right at this very moment? It's love and compassion, right? Love and compassion. Love and compassion when we feel that, when we really genuinely give rise to that, then that brings happiness to ourselves, it also brings happiness to others, it brings happiness to anyone, everyone who's around us, when we really feel genuine love and compassion. Honestly, you know, all of you who are here right now, you're saying, oh, it's so niceto be here, I'm so happy to be here, it's so enjoyable. Why is that happening? Why do you feel like that when you're here? It's actually because you're getting along. It's because you love and care for each other and you're getting along with one another. That's where that comes from. There's a lot of different kinds of people here from different countries who speak different languages with different cultural backgrounds. Why is it so nice to be here together, all of us? It's nice and we're enjoying it because we get along, that's why, right?
And we get along because of care, love and care. So this is what creates the circumstances for being happy. In fact, that kind of love and getting along with others, that is itself virtue. That is a form of virtue. And the degree to which that we don't get along with other people, as much as we don't get along and have difficulty in our relationships, to that degree, we feel unhappy. That always creates a sense of unhappiness and suffering. In a worldly context, too. We're not talking about just in a dharmic context, right? And so that's why love and compassion and care and getting along with one another is so important. It's a cause for worldly happiness and it's also a cause that creates the circumstances to bring about wisdom and then omniscience, liberation and omniscience. That also comes from love, out of love. So we make the prayer, may all beings be happy. And may they also have the causes that create happiness, that bring about happiness. And we should make that prayer and that aspiration one-pointedly, really from our heart.
It's to wish that all beings are happy, that they are physically comfortable and that they are happy in their minds as well. And that creates actually happiness and ease for us, too. Feeling that kind of wish and that aspiration, creates physical and mental ease. And then we make the prayer and the aspiration, may all beings be free from suffering and its causes. Again, what are the causes for suffering? Even temporary suffering, we're not talking about just long-term, but even immediate suffering. It comes about from attachment, it comes about from aggression, it comes about due to pride, due to jealousy, competitiveness. Each one of those afflictive emotions brings a cascade of others. They come one after the other. What is the real ultimate cause of all of those afflictions? What is the real ultimate cause of actually all of our suffering? Well, it comes from ignorance, the ignorance of not knowing. Not knowing what? Not knowing what we ought to know, what there is to know. And what is that? Well, a presentation about, or an understanding of the outer perceived objects, as well as the inner perceiving mind, and in particular, the path that leads to liberation and omniscience. When we don't know that, when we are ignorant when it comes to that, then we end up on the wrong path, leaving the path behind, and we wander in samsara. So, that is what creates that, right? If we are not confused about what there is to know, we will not be on the wrong path, we will not leave the path behind, and we will not wander in samsara. This is why it is so important, actually, to understand there's of course many topics that we could learn about and come to know, and there's actually a lot of religions too. I mentioned yesterday that it's important for us to have respect for religions in general because they help people, they're beneficial. But here in the context of the Buddha Dharma among religions that exist in the world, if we want to understand the Buddha Dharma, there are clear presentations that can help us to gain real confidence, certainty with respect to the teachings of the Dharma, can be explained very briefly, it can be explained in a medium length, and it can be explained in so great detail, such great detail, that it takes months, and months, and years and years. And it can be explained in that way, very clearly, very lucidly, this too is possible. When we make the aspiration, bring to mind, may all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering, that's something that we should really feel from deep within ourselves. Really from the core of our heart. And if we do that one-pointedly, right, may all beings be happy, truly happy, and have the causes of true happiness. If we feel that so intently that tears form in our eyes, that the hair on our body stands on end, because we're so one-pointedly strong in that aspiration for all beings to be happy and to have the causes that bring about happiness. And to be free from suffering and its causes, this generates the awakened attitude of bodhichitta. It comes out of that kind of aspiration. And when we have genuine bodhichitta, then we can really engage in activities that benefit others. We can really start to help. We can practice generosity that's real generosity, right? Not stingy generosity, not generosity that's somehow caught up in trying to show off to others through what we give. But real generosity. Then we can practice all of the six perfections in this way. We can practice the four means of magnetizing all of the conduct of a bodhisattva in a way that's real, that's genuine. Why? What makes it possible for us to practice bodhisattva conduct genuinely, really authentically? What makes it possible to do this is bodhichitta, love and compassion, bodhichitta. And so here we are talking about may beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering and happiness and may they have happiness and the causes of happiness. And now we know what the causes of suffering are, right? We know that clearly. We're aware very clearly what the causes of happiness are. We know that we have engaged in a lot of negative actions, physically, verbally and mentally. And there are plenty of them that we are aware of that we've engaged in. There's also plenty of negative things we've done that we're not even aware of, we don't even remember. But these kind of actions, these negative actions, they create what we call the karmic obscuration. And actually karma justmeans action. If you want to talk about accumulating karma, it just means doing things, acting. Each action is a karma. It is a moment of karma, the accumulation of karma. Karma means action. And so, if we want to purify, if we wonder how can I purify all those negative things that I've done with my body, my speech, my mind, how can I purify those negative actions, the obscurations, all the habits, the negative habits that I've accumulated, how can I purify them? There's a really, really powerful way of purifying them, the most powerful. And that is love, compassion, bodhichitta, real love and compassion. That wish, that aspiration, may all beings be free from suffering and its causes. May they all have happiness and all of the causes that bring about happiness. When we have that motivation in a truly pure, genuinely pure way, then we become capable of engaging in action that helps others in an extensive, a very extensive and vast way. We become capable of that kind of action. So bodhichitta, the awakened attitude of bodhichitta is really important. And so when we recite the verses for generating bodhichitta, we do that three times also. And that's again for a reason. It's so that we can bring to mind in a very stable way what we're doing when we generate bodhichitta and to keep that in mind very clearly. So, this also is so important to generate bodhichitta in this way. Short break.
Right time, right dream.
Yeah, refreshing (time.)
17:26
In general, when it comes to the Dharma,
What does it do for us? What does the Dharma do? How does it help? The Dharma is a remedy to our afflictive emotions. It has to be, any Dharma activity, any Dharma practice that we do. It must be a remedy to our negative emotions. That's why we do all of the Dharma practice and Dharma activity that we do. And one practice, that of the seven branches, is something that's extremely important, that we recite at the beginning of the teaching session. The first branch is that of prostration. And this is because we make prostrations, because I and all sentient beings have engaged in negative actions, physically, verbally and mentally. And we have in this way accumulated a lot of negativity, a lot of obscuration, a lot of wrongdoing. We've broken commitments through engaging in these kinds of negativity with our body, our speech and our mind. And in order to purify that and also in order that the awakened body, speech and mind, all of the qualities of the awakened body, speech and mind of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, residing in the ten directions in the three times, in order that those excellent qualities might be born within myself as well, born within me too, quickly, we make prostrations. So this is very important to prostrate. And then offering, that's the second branch. There are lots of kinds of offerings. There's outer offering, inner offering, secret offering, the offering of suchness. But here in this context we make a mandala offering. And the mandala offering that we recite, right? The earth is perfumed with scented water, strewn with flowers, adorned with Mount Meru, the four continents, the sun and the moon. So the four continents, that's four, at Mount Meru, that's five, the sun and the moon, six, seven. These seven aspects, all of these we bring to mind and we offer, we offer all of this. And the reason why we make offerings is because we are stingy and we are attached. And in order to remedy our stinginess and our attachment, we make offerings. So that in this way, when we overcome that stinginess and attachment, it allows for compassion and wisdom to unfold within us. In this way then we purify a lot of negativity and wrongdoing and obscuration and we also gather merit, an excellent way of gathering merit. So this is making offerings and why that's so important. And then confession. Confession is really important. Confession is something that if we do it in a context like here, we are in a temple setting, right? There are images, representations of awakened body, speech and mind, there are lamas, there are monastics, there are our dharma brothers and sisters, our vajra siblings. And in the presence of such practitioners, then, if we make confession, bring to mind all of the negative actions that we've engaged in since beginningless time in Samsara. We have engaged in physical negative actions, verbal ones, and mental ones, since beginningless time in Samsara. If we bring those to mind and confess them, it's said that even a small negative deed cannot be purified, if we don't regret it and confess it. But even a great heavy negative karma, a negative action can be purified, if we sincerely regret and confess. And so in this way then, it's said that there are no good qualities to bad deeds, except one. They can be purified through confession, through regret and confession. So in some sense we could say that's the only good quality of negative actions. And then, rejoicing, right? So prostration, offering, confession and then rejoicing. Rejoicing here is bringing to mind all of the virtuous actions, the good, kind, altruistic actions that have been engaged in by all of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. But not just the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, even ordinary sentient beings, ordinary beings. All of the goodness that we have engaged in, all of the good things that all beings have engaged in, the beneficial activity that has been engaged in by all beings. If we rejoice in that, then there is a tremendous amount of benefit in doing so. It's very powerful actually to rejoice in the goodness of everyone, all the goodness that has been engaged in. And it creates actually a very important habit, habitual pattern within ourselves, a habit towards virtue when we rejoice in the virtue of others. And then we make the request to the teacher to turn the wheel of Dharma, to teach the Dharma. So, again we prostrate, we offer, we confess, we rejoice and then we request the turning of the wheel of the Dharma. And this is in order to clear away the darkness of ignorance, to clear away the darkness of ignorance. When we are on the wrong path or leave the path behind, we wander in samsara. And in order to remedy that situation, we ask the teacher to teach, to turn the wheel of Dharma. And then we request the teacher not to pass into Nirvana. This again is so important because we need to have the darkness of our wrong views cleared away, dispelled. And in order that we don't get caught up in these kind of wrong views, we request the teacher to remain in the world, not to pass into Nirvana. And then, we dedicate, we dedicate the virtue that has been accumulated. And there are many, many different ways of accumulating virtue, of accumulating virtuous actions. But here we are in the context of Dharma teaching. And as I mentioned to you yesterday, that is one of the most meritorious, most virtuous things that can happen. Because, as I mentioned, it clears away the darkness of ignorance in the minds of beings. And so, the wisdom that arises from listening to the teachings and contemplating them is very precious and important. And so in this way then, it can purify actually, clear away the negativity that we have accumulated with our body, our speech and our mind and turn us physically, verbally and mentally towards virtue. And so in this way then, the merit, the virtue that comes about through listening to the teachings and all merit that we engage in, we should dedicate it to the attainment of liberation and omniscience of all sentient beings. Because that virtue can actually bring us, it can create the circumstances that allow us to attain that result of liberation and omniscience. And therefore listening to the teachings and contemplating them, is extremely important, it's extremely important. And this specific kind of virtue is particularly powerful. So then that's the seventh branch of dedicating. These seven branches are really important practices for us.
When we request the teachers not to pass into nirvana, another benefit is that, that prevents us from following wrong teachers and from spending time around non-virtuous company. So this is another benefit. When it comes to taking refuge and generating bodhicitta, the seven branch practice and so on, these are things that we do again and again and again and again. And there's a reason for that. When we take refuge in the three jewels, we are purifying the negativity that we have accumulated in the past through not respecting, not having faith in, looking wrongly upon the three jewels, or not knowing their excellent qualities. In particular, not being interested in the Dharma. If we're not interested in the Dharma, then we won't learn the Dharma, and then we won't know the Dharma, and then we won't practice the Dharma. And if we don't practice the Dharma, then we don't attain liberation and omniscience. And so taking refuge in the three jewels is a way of remedying that kind of negativity, which we may have engaged in in the past. And this is something that we repeat again and again and again. In particular, when we take refuge in the Buddha, what we are doing is bringing to mind the excellent qualities, the positive qualities of the Buddha, and the kindness, actually, of the Buddha. When we recall this and bring this to mind, then it also creates the circumstances for, for us to become Buddhas ourselves in the future. So, we're creating the positive circumstances for that to come about. And it prevents us, also, taking refuge in the Buddha, likewise, prevents us from following after wrong teachers, teachers who are not leading in the correct direction. So refuge is very important. And so is taking refuge in the Dharma. So taking refuge in the Buddha, of course, is important, but also in the Dharma, remembering the excellent qualities of the Buddha Dharma, remembering the kindness, actually, of the Dharma. And understanding that, if we take refuge in the Dharma, that kind of refuge actually makes it easier for us to connect more directly and understand more easily the vast and profound teachings of the Dharma. And also to not be so interested in things that aren't Dharma, in terms of topics of knowledge, right? There's other things that we can study. Some of them are good, some of them are not very good, some of them are harmful. And taking refuge in the Dharma can create the circumstances for us to lose interest in those other things that we might otherwise be interested in, which are harmful. So taking refuge in the Dharma is very important for that reason. And taking refuge in the Sangha is also really important. In general, we take refuge, of course, in the Bodhisattvas, the Buddhas, the Bodhisattvas who are residing on the Bodhisattva grounds, the Bhumis, also the Sangha of Arhats, these practitioners also, great practitioners who avoid, who refrain from the ten non-virtues, who practice the ten virtues, who cultivate love and compassion, and bodhichitta who train in shamatha, who train in vipassana, who cultivate the stages of practice of the generation stage, the perfection stage. When we take refuge in this kind of sangha, then it creates the circumstances that we too, can become like them, that we too can take up those practices and follow that same, that very same path, become male and female bodhisattvas. So, there's a great benefit actually in taking refuge in the sangha. Likewise, it creates the conditions that we don't get caught up in non-virtuous friends spending time hanging around in non-virtuous friendships. So, this kind of taking refuge in the sangha has this kind of benefit. Actually, there's quite a lot of reasons why we take refuge and, if we know them, when we recite just these few lines, I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the Dharma, I take refuge in the sangha, just reciting that. And we do it three times, we do it again and again. There's a reason, why we do it three times. It's because we want to make sure that we are bringing to mind in a very stable way what we're actually saying. That's important that we're not just saying the words. The same goes for bodhichitta, in order that we're really remembering and bringing to mind what we're doing when we recite the lines for generating the awakened attitude of bodhichitta. There's a reason why we repeat these things. It's a really important reason. So, refuge and bodhichitta, in very brief, we can explain in those ways, just mentioned.
So I explained just now a little bit about the benefits of refuge. But what about bodhichitta, generating bodhichitta? We bring to mind the idea, may all beings be happy and have the causes of happiness. We shouldn't just say the words, we have to really bring to mind what this means. Really keep this in mind. If we think about it for a moment, all sentient beings suffer. Those who have a lot suffer, those who have very little, they also suffer. If you just take a look actually, you can see that even those who outwardly at first glance seem to have it all. They have all of the resources that they need, they have wealth, they have power, they have fame perhaps. But when you look a little bit more closely, you see that they experience so much mental suffering, so much mental suffering. They're proud, they're jealous, they're competitive, they're greedy, arrogant, caught up in all of these afflictive emotions. Their mind is so tight, so rigid, so unhappy actually, so bound and caught up in pride and jealousy and competitiveness. If we look at someone who doesn't have much, perhaps the cause of their happiness is that they just don't have enough to even get by, right? They don't have enough food, they don't have enough to eat and drink, they don't have a place to stay. Sometimes someone like that, they simply get what they need to be okay, then they're quite happy actually, right? But then you look at people who have everything and somehow they're just not happy. They are famous, they're powerful, they're wealthy, but their mind is afflicted by so much suffering, so much suffering. And we can see that this is the case actually. And so, we see that both those who have very little as well as those who have a lot, suffer. Again, why is it that those who have so much in terms of wealth, in terms of power, in terms of possessions, why do they suffer? It's because of their attachments, their attachments and their anger, attachment and aversion. And where does that come from? That comes from delusion, the delusion, the ignorance of not knowing, right? Because when one is attached and caught up in aversion, then that causes the accumulation of actions, of karma, and the result of that is painful, the result of that is painful, it's suffering. And that suffering has to be experienced by oneself, the person who engaged in that kind of action, that kind of mindset. So we know that the cause of suffering is attachment and aversion and delusion. And yet, sometimes even while knowing that, we still engage in those actions, right? We still get caught up, we still fall under the sway of our attachments, of our aggression and delusion. Of course it's the case that people who don't know that that's the cause of suffering do those things, of course, right? But even when we know, we still find ourselves caught under the sway of those afflictions. And it's not just that attachment brings suffering and that aggression brings suffering. Attachment itself is suffering, it's painful. And anger is painful, anger itself is painful, anger itself is a form of suffering. Where do we suffer? Where does that suffering manifest? It manifests in our body and in our mind, both physically and mentally. And so this is why we make the prayer, may all beings be happy and have all of the causes of happiness, the causes of happiness both temporarily, like right now, and also the causes of future happiness, even for temporary happiness, not just ultimate happiness, even just for temporary happiness, it has to come about from a cause, just not uncaused. It has to have some kind of cause. And what is the cause of happiness just right at this very moment? It's love and compassion, right? Love and compassion. Love and compassion when we feel that, when we really genuinely give rise to that, then that brings happiness to ourselves, it also brings happiness to others, it brings happiness to anyone, everyone who's around us, when we really feel genuine love and compassion. Honestly, you know, all of you who are here right now, you're saying, oh, it's so niceto be here, I'm so happy to be here, it's so enjoyable. Why is that happening? Why do you feel like that when you're here? It's actually because you're getting along. It's because you love and care for each other and you're getting along with one another. That's where that comes from. There's a lot of different kinds of people here from different countries who speak different languages with different cultural backgrounds. Why is it so nice to be here together, all of us? It's nice and we're enjoying it because we get along, that's why, right?
And we get along because of care, love and care. So this is what creates the circumstances for being happy. In fact, that kind of love and getting along with others, that is itself virtue. That is a form of virtue. And the degree to which that we don't get along with other people, as much as we don't get along and have difficulty in our relationships, to that degree, we feel unhappy. That always creates a sense of unhappiness and suffering. In a worldly context, too. We're not talking about just in a dharmic context, right? And so that's why love and compassion and care and getting along with one another is so important. It's a cause for worldly happiness and it's also a cause that creates the circumstances to bring about wisdom and then omniscience, liberation and omniscience. That also comes from love, out of love. So we make the prayer, may all beings be happy. And may they also have the causes that create happiness, that bring about happiness. And we should make that prayer and that aspiration one-pointedly, really from our heart.
It's to wish that all beings are happy, that they are physically comfortable and that they are happy in their minds as well. And that creates actually happiness and ease for us, too. Feeling that kind of wish and that aspiration, creates physical and mental ease. And then we make the prayer and the aspiration, may all beings be free from suffering and its causes. Again, what are the causes for suffering? Even temporary suffering, we're not talking about just long-term, but even immediate suffering. It comes about from attachment, it comes about from aggression, it comes about due to pride, due to jealousy, competitiveness. Each one of those afflictive emotions brings a cascade of others. They come one after the other. What is the real ultimate cause of all of those afflictions? What is the real ultimate cause of actually all of our suffering? Well, it comes from ignorance, the ignorance of not knowing. Not knowing what? Not knowing what we ought to know, what there is to know. And what is that? Well, a presentation about, or an understanding of the outer perceived objects, as well as the inner perceiving mind, and in particular, the path that leads to liberation and omniscience. When we don't know that, when we are ignorant when it comes to that, then we end up on the wrong path, leaving the path behind, and we wander in samsara. So, that is what creates that, right? If we are not confused about what there is to know, we will not be on the wrong path, we will not leave the path behind, and we will not wander in samsara. This is why it is so important, actually, to understand there's of course many topics that we could learn about and come to know, and there's actually a lot of religions too. I mentioned yesterday that it's important for us to have respect for religions in general because they help people, they're beneficial. But here in the context of the Buddha Dharma among religions that exist in the world, if we want to understand the Buddha Dharma, there are clear presentations that can help us to gain real confidence, certainty with respect to the teachings of the Dharma, can be explained very briefly, it can be explained in a medium length, and it can be explained in so great detail, such great detail, that it takes months, and months, and years and years. And it can be explained in that way, very clearly, very lucidly, this too is possible. When we make the aspiration, bring to mind, may all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering, that's something that we should really feel from deep within ourselves. Really from the core of our heart. And if we do that one-pointedly, right, may all beings be happy, truly happy, and have the causes of true happiness. If we feel that so intently that tears form in our eyes, that the hair on our body stands on end, because we're so one-pointedly strong in that aspiration for all beings to be happy and to have the causes that bring about happiness. And to be free from suffering and its causes, this generates the awakened attitude of bodhichitta. It comes out of that kind of aspiration. And when we have genuine bodhichitta, then we can really engage in activities that benefit others. We can really start to help. We can practice generosity that's real generosity, right? Not stingy generosity, not generosity that's somehow caught up in trying to show off to others through what we give. But real generosity. Then we can practice all of the six perfections in this way. We can practice the four means of magnetizing all of the conduct of a bodhisattva in a way that's real, that's genuine. Why? What makes it possible for us to practice bodhisattva conduct genuinely, really authentically? What makes it possible to do this is bodhichitta, love and compassion, bodhichitta. And so here we are talking about may beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering and happiness and may they have happiness and the causes of happiness. And now we know what the causes of suffering are, right? We know that clearly. We're aware very clearly what the causes of happiness are. We know that we have engaged in a lot of negative actions, physically, verbally and mentally. And there are plenty of them that we are aware of that we've engaged in. There's also plenty of negative things we've done that we're not even aware of, we don't even remember. But these kind of actions, these negative actions, they create what we call the karmic obscuration. And actually karma justmeans action. If you want to talk about accumulating karma, it just means doing things, acting. Each action is a karma. It is a moment of karma, the accumulation of karma. Karma means action. And so, if we want to purify, if we wonder how can I purify all those negative things that I've done with my body, my speech, my mind, how can I purify those negative actions, the obscurations, all the habits, the negative habits that I've accumulated, how can I purify them? There's a really, really powerful way of purifying them, the most powerful. And that is love, compassion, bodhichitta, real love and compassion. That wish, that aspiration, may all beings be free from suffering and its causes. May they all have happiness and all of the causes that bring about happiness. When we have that motivation in a truly pure, genuinely pure way, then we become capable of engaging in action that helps others in an extensive, a very extensive and vast way. We become capable of that kind of action. So bodhichitta, the awakened attitude of bodhichitta is really important. And so when we recite the verses for generating bodhichitta, we do that three times also. And that's again for a reason. It's so that we can bring to mind in a very stable way what we're doing when we generate bodhichitta and to keep that in mind very clearly. So, this also is so important to generate bodhichitta in this way. Short break.
Right time, right dream.
Yeah, refreshing (time.)
What does it do for us? What does the Dharma do? How does it help? The Dharma is a remedy to our afflictive emotions. It has to be, any Dharma activity, any Dharma practice that we do. It must be a remedy to our negative emotions. That's why we do all of the Dharma practice and Dharma activity that we do. And one practice, that of the seven branches, is something that's extremely important, that we recite at the beginning of the teaching session. The first branch is that of prostration. And this is because we make prostrations, because I and all sentient beings have engaged in negative actions, physically, verbally and mentally. And we have in this way accumulated a lot of negativity, a lot of obscuration, a lot of wrongdoing. We've broken commitments through engaging in these kinds of negativity with our body, our speech and our mind. And in order to purify that and also in order that the awakened body, speech and mind, all of the qualities of the awakened body, speech and mind of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, residing in the ten directions in the three times, in order that those excellent qualities might be born within myself as well, born within me too, quickly, we make prostrations. So this is very important to prostrate. And then offering, that's the second branch. There are lots of kinds of offerings. There's outer offering, inner offering, secret offering, the offering of suchness. But here in this context we make a mandala offering. And the mandala offering that we recite, right? The earth is perfumed with scented water, strewn with flowers, adorned with Mount Meru, the four continents, the sun and the moon. So the four continents, that's four, at Mount Meru, that's five, the sun and the moon, six, seven. These seven aspects, all of these we bring to mind and we offer, we offer all of this. And the reason why we make offerings is because we are stingy and we are attached. And in order to remedy our stinginess and our attachment, we make offerings. So that in this way, when we overcome that stinginess and attachment, it allows for compassion and wisdom to unfold within us. In this way then we purify a lot of negativity and wrongdoing and obscuration and we also gather merit, an excellent way of gathering merit. So this is making offerings and why that's so important. And then confession. Confession is really important. Confession is something that if we do it in a context like here, we are in a temple setting, right? There are images, representations of awakened body, speech and mind, there are lamas, there are monastics, there are our dharma brothers and sisters, our vajra siblings. And in the presence of such practitioners, then, if we make confession, bring to mind all of the negative actions that we've engaged in since beginningless time in Samsara. We have engaged in physical negative actions, verbal ones, and mental ones, since beginningless time in Samsara. If we bring those to mind and confess them, it's said that even a small negative deed cannot be purified, if we don't regret it and confess it. But even a great heavy negative karma, a negative action can be purified, if we sincerely regret and confess. And so in this way then, it's said that there are no good qualities to bad deeds, except one. They can be purified through confession, through regret and confession. So in some sense we could say that's the only good quality of negative actions. And then, rejoicing, right? So prostration, offering, confession and then rejoicing. Rejoicing here is bringing to mind all of the virtuous actions, the good, kind, altruistic actions that have been engaged in by all of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. But not just the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, even ordinary sentient beings, ordinary beings. All of the goodness that we have engaged in, all of the good things that all beings have engaged in, the beneficial activity that has been engaged in by all beings. If we rejoice in that, then there is a tremendous amount of benefit in doing so. It's very powerful actually to rejoice in the goodness of everyone, all the goodness that has been engaged in. And it creates actually a very important habit, habitual pattern within ourselves, a habit towards virtue when we rejoice in the virtue of others. And then we make the request to the teacher to turn the wheel of Dharma, to teach the Dharma. So, again we prostrate, we offer, we confess, we rejoice and then we request the turning of the wheel of the Dharma. And this is in order to clear away the darkness of ignorance, to clear away the darkness of ignorance. When we are on the wrong path or leave the path behind, we wander in samsara. And in order to remedy that situation, we ask the teacher to teach, to turn the wheel of Dharma. And then we request the teacher not to pass into Nirvana. This again is so important because we need to have the darkness of our wrong views cleared away, dispelled. And in order that we don't get caught up in these kind of wrong views, we request the teacher to remain in the world, not to pass into Nirvana. And then, we dedicate, we dedicate the virtue that has been accumulated. And there are many, many different ways of accumulating virtue, of accumulating virtuous actions. But here we are in the context of Dharma teaching. And as I mentioned to you yesterday, that is one of the most meritorious, most virtuous things that can happen. Because, as I mentioned, it clears away the darkness of ignorance in the minds of beings. And so, the wisdom that arises from listening to the teachings and contemplating them is very precious and important. And so in this way then, it can purify actually, clear away the negativity that we have accumulated with our body, our speech and our mind and turn us physically, verbally and mentally towards virtue. And so in this way then, the merit, the virtue that comes about through listening to the teachings and all merit that we engage in, we should dedicate it to the attainment of liberation and omniscience of all sentient beings. Because that virtue can actually bring us, it can create the circumstances that allow us to attain that result of liberation and omniscience. And therefore listening to the teachings and contemplating them, is extremely important, it's extremely important. And this specific kind of virtue is particularly powerful. So then that's the seventh branch of dedicating. These seven branches are really important practices for us.
When we request the teachers not to pass into nirvana, another benefit is that, that prevents us from following wrong teachers and from spending time around non-virtuous company. So this is another benefit. When it comes to taking refuge and generating bodhicitta, the seven branch practice and so on, these are things that we do again and again and again and again. And there's a reason for that. When we take refuge in the three jewels, we are purifying the negativity that we have accumulated in the past through not respecting, not having faith in, looking wrongly upon the three jewels, or not knowing their excellent qualities. In particular, not being interested in the Dharma. If we're not interested in the Dharma, then we won't learn the Dharma, and then we won't know the Dharma, and then we won't practice the Dharma. And if we don't practice the Dharma, then we don't attain liberation and omniscience. And so taking refuge in the three jewels is a way of remedying that kind of negativity, which we may have engaged in in the past. And this is something that we repeat again and again and again. In particular, when we take refuge in the Buddha, what we are doing is bringing to mind the excellent qualities, the positive qualities of the Buddha, and the kindness, actually, of the Buddha. When we recall this and bring this to mind, then it also creates the circumstances for, for us to become Buddhas ourselves in the future. So, we're creating the positive circumstances for that to come about. And it prevents us, also, taking refuge in the Buddha, likewise, prevents us from following after wrong teachers, teachers who are not leading in the correct direction. So refuge is very important. And so is taking refuge in the Dharma. So taking refuge in the Buddha, of course, is important, but also in the Dharma, remembering the excellent qualities of the Buddha Dharma, remembering the kindness, actually, of the Dharma. And understanding that, if we take refuge in the Dharma, that kind of refuge actually makes it easier for us to connect more directly and understand more easily the vast and profound teachings of the Dharma. And also to not be so interested in things that aren't Dharma, in terms of topics of knowledge, right? There's other things that we can study. Some of them are good, some of them are not very good, some of them are harmful. And taking refuge in the Dharma can create the circumstances for us to lose interest in those other things that we might otherwise be interested in, which are harmful. So taking refuge in the Dharma is very important for that reason. And taking refuge in the Sangha is also really important. In general, we take refuge, of course, in the Bodhisattvas, the Buddhas, the Bodhisattvas who are residing on the Bodhisattva grounds, the Bhumis, also the Sangha of Arhats, these practitioners also, great practitioners who avoid, who refrain from the ten non-virtues, who practice the ten virtues, who cultivate love and compassion, and bodhichitta who train in shamatha, who train in vipassana, who cultivate the stages of practice of the generation stage, the perfection stage. When we take refuge in this kind of sangha, then it creates the circumstances that we too, can become like them, that we too can take up those practices and follow that same, that very same path, become male and female bodhisattvas. So, there's a great benefit actually in taking refuge in the sangha. Likewise, it creates the conditions that we don't get caught up in non-virtuous friends spending time hanging around in non-virtuous friendships. So, this kind of taking refuge in the sangha has this kind of benefit. Actually, there's quite a lot of reasons why we take refuge and, if we know them, when we recite just these few lines, I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the Dharma, I take refuge in the sangha, just reciting that. And we do it three times, we do it again and again. There's a reason, why we do it three times. It's because we want to make sure that we are bringing to mind in a very stable way what we're actually saying. That's important that we're not just saying the words. The same goes for bodhichitta, in order that we're really remembering and bringing to mind what we're doing when we recite the lines for generating the awakened attitude of bodhichitta. There's a reason why we repeat these things. It's a really important reason. So, refuge and bodhichitta, in very brief, we can explain in those ways, just mentioned.
So I explained just now a little bit about the benefits of refuge. But what about bodhichitta, generating bodhichitta? We bring to mind the idea, may all beings be happy and have the causes of happiness. We shouldn't just say the words, we have to really bring to mind what this means. Really keep this in mind. If we think about it for a moment, all sentient beings suffer. Those who have a lot suffer, those who have very little, they also suffer. If you just take a look actually, you can see that even those who outwardly at first glance seem to have it all. They have all of the resources that they need, they have wealth, they have power, they have fame perhaps. But when you look a little bit more closely, you see that they experience so much mental suffering, so much mental suffering. They're proud, they're jealous, they're competitive, they're greedy, arrogant, caught up in all of these afflictive emotions. Their mind is so tight, so rigid, so unhappy actually, so bound and caught up in pride and jealousy and competitiveness. If we look at someone who doesn't have much, perhaps the cause of their happiness is that they just don't have enough to even get by, right? They don't have enough food, they don't have enough to eat and drink, they don't have a place to stay. Sometimes someone like that, they simply get what they need to be okay, then they're quite happy actually, right? But then you look at people who have everything and somehow they're just not happy. They are famous, they're powerful, they're wealthy, but their mind is afflicted by so much suffering, so much suffering. And we can see that this is the case actually. And so, we see that both those who have very little as well as those who have a lot, suffer. Again, why is it that those who have so much in terms of wealth, in terms of power, in terms of possessions, why do they suffer? It's because of their attachments, their attachments and their anger, attachment and aversion. And where does that come from? That comes from delusion, the delusion, the ignorance of not knowing, right? Because when one is attached and caught up in aversion, then that causes the accumulation of actions, of karma, and the result of that is painful, the result of that is painful, it's suffering. And that suffering has to be experienced by oneself, the person who engaged in that kind of action, that kind of mindset. So we know that the cause of suffering is attachment and aversion and delusion. And yet, sometimes even while knowing that, we still engage in those actions, right? We still get caught up, we still fall under the sway of our attachments, of our aggression and delusion. Of course it's the case that people who don't know that that's the cause of suffering do those things, of course, right? But even when we know, we still find ourselves caught under the sway of those afflictions. And it's not just that attachment brings suffering and that aggression brings suffering. Attachment itself is suffering, it's painful. And anger is painful, anger itself is painful, anger itself is a form of suffering. Where do we suffer? Where does that suffering manifest? It manifests in our body and in our mind, both physically and mentally. And so this is why we make the prayer, may all beings be happy and have all of the causes of happiness, the causes of happiness both temporarily, like right now, and also the causes of future happiness, even for temporary happiness, not just ultimate happiness, even just for temporary happiness, it has to come about from a cause, just not uncaused. It has to have some kind of cause. And what is the cause of happiness just right at this very moment? It's love and compassion, right? Love and compassion. Love and compassion when we feel that, when we really genuinely give rise to that, then that brings happiness to ourselves, it also brings happiness to others, it brings happiness to anyone, everyone who's around us, when we really feel genuine love and compassion. Honestly, you know, all of you who are here right now, you're saying, oh, it's so niceto be here, I'm so happy to be here, it's so enjoyable. Why is that happening? Why do you feel like that when you're here? It's actually because you're getting along. It's because you love and care for each other and you're getting along with one another. That's where that comes from. There's a lot of different kinds of people here from different countries who speak different languages with different cultural backgrounds. Why is it so nice to be here together, all of us? It's nice and we're enjoying it because we get along, that's why, right?
And we get along because of care, love and care. So this is what creates the circumstances for being happy. In fact, that kind of love and getting along with others, that is itself virtue. That is a form of virtue. And the degree to which that we don't get along with other people, as much as we don't get along and have difficulty in our relationships, to that degree, we feel unhappy. That always creates a sense of unhappiness and suffering. In a worldly context, too. We're not talking about just in a dharmic context, right? And so that's why love and compassion and care and getting along with one another is so important. It's a cause for worldly happiness and it's also a cause that creates the circumstances to bring about wisdom and then omniscience, liberation and omniscience. That also comes from love, out of love. So we make the prayer, may all beings be happy. And may they also have the causes that create happiness, that bring about happiness. And we should make that prayer and that aspiration one-pointedly, really from our heart.
It's to wish that all beings are happy, that they are physically comfortable and that they are happy in their minds as well. And that creates actually happiness and ease for us, too. Feeling that kind of wish and that aspiration, creates physical and mental ease. And then we make the prayer and the aspiration, may all beings be free from suffering and its causes. Again, what are the causes for suffering? Even temporary suffering, we're not talking about just long-term, but even immediate suffering. It comes about from attachment, it comes about from aggression, it comes about due to pride, due to jealousy, competitiveness. Each one of those afflictive emotions brings a cascade of others. They come one after the other. What is the real ultimate cause of all of those afflictions? What is the real ultimate cause of actually all of our suffering? Well, it comes from ignorance, the ignorance of not knowing. Not knowing what? Not knowing what we ought to know, what there is to know. And what is that? Well, a presentation about, or an understanding of the outer perceived objects, as well as the inner perceiving mind, and in particular, the path that leads to liberation and omniscience. When we don't know that, when we are ignorant when it comes to that, then we end up on the wrong path, leaving the path behind, and we wander in samsara. So, that is what creates that, right? If we are not confused about what there is to know, we will not be on the wrong path, we will not leave the path behind, and we will not wander in samsara. This is why it is so important, actually, to understand there's of course many topics that we could learn about and come to know, and there's actually a lot of religions too. I mentioned yesterday that it's important for us to have respect for religions in general because they help people, they're beneficial. But here in the context of the Buddha Dharma among religions that exist in the world, if we want to understand the Buddha Dharma, there are clear presentations that can help us to gain real confidence, certainty with respect to the teachings of the Dharma, can be explained very briefly, it can be explained in a medium length, and it can be explained in so great detail, such great detail, that it takes months, and months, and years and years. And it can be explained in that way, very clearly, very lucidly, this too is possible. When we make the aspiration, bring to mind, may all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering, that's something that we should really feel from deep within ourselves. Really from the core of our heart. And if we do that one-pointedly, right, may all beings be happy, truly happy, and have the causes of true happiness. If we feel that so intently that tears form in our eyes, that the hair on our body stands on end, because we're so one-pointedly strong in that aspiration for all beings to be happy and to have the causes that bring about happiness. And to be free from suffering and its causes, this generates the awakened attitude of bodhichitta. It comes out of that kind of aspiration. And when we have genuine bodhichitta, then we can really engage in activities that benefit others. We can really start to help. We can practice generosity that's real generosity, right? Not stingy generosity, not generosity that's somehow caught up in trying to show off to others through what we give. But real generosity. Then we can practice all of the six perfections in this way. We can practice the four means of magnetizing all of the conduct of a bodhisattva in a way that's real, that's genuine. Why? What makes it possible for us to practice bodhisattva conduct genuinely, really authentically? What makes it possible to do this is bodhichitta, love and compassion, bodhichitta. And so here we are talking about may beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering and happiness and may they have happiness and the causes of happiness. And now we know what the causes of suffering are, right? We know that clearly. We're aware very clearly what the causes of happiness are. We know that we have engaged in a lot of negative actions, physically, verbally and mentally. And there are plenty of them that we are aware of that we've engaged in. There's also plenty of negative things we've done that we're not even aware of, we don't even remember. But these kind of actions, these negative actions, they create what we call the karmic obscuration. And actually karma justmeans action. If you want to talk about accumulating karma, it just means doing things, acting. Each action is a karma. It is a moment of karma, the accumulation of karma. Karma means action. And so, if we want to purify, if we wonder how can I purify all those negative things that I've done with my body, my speech, my mind, how can I purify those negative actions, the obscurations, all the habits, the negative habits that I've accumulated, how can I purify them? There's a really, really powerful way of purifying them, the most powerful. And that is love, compassion, bodhichitta, real love and compassion. That wish, that aspiration, may all beings be free from suffering and its causes. May they all have happiness and all of the causes that bring about happiness. When we have that motivation in a truly pure, genuinely pure way, then we become capable of engaging in action that helps others in an extensive, a very extensive and vast way. We become capable of that kind of action. So bodhichitta, the awakened attitude of bodhichitta is really important. And so when we recite the verses for generating bodhichitta, we do that three times also. And that's again for a reason. It's so that we can bring to mind in a very stable way what we're doing when we generate bodhichitta and to keep that in mind very clearly. So, this also is so important to generate bodhichitta in this way. Short break.
Right time, right dream.
Yeah, refreshing (time.)
The Four Seals of the Dharma 2a
Afflictions, Seven Branch Practice, refuge, bodhic
Teacher:
Location:
- Gomde Germany-Austria
- Date: September 22, 2023
Description >>
This session focuses on the transformative power of the Dharma to remedy afflictive emotions, primarily through the Seven Branch Practice, which includes prostration, offering, confession, rejoicing, requesting teachings, requesting the teacher to remain, and dedication. Each branch serves as a method to purify negativity, accumulate merit, and cultivate the virtuous qualities needed for awakening. The session also highlights the practice of taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha as a means to protect the mind from delusion and strengthen faith, wisdom, and moral conduct. Finally, the concept of bodhichitta is emphasized, as the wish for all beings to be free from suffering and its causes transforms the mind, purifies karma, and enables authentic engagement in the six perfections and bodhisattva conduct.
