Eight Verses for Training the Mind

by Kadampa Geshe Langritangpa

Talk Four

Re-cap on last talk

Verse 4 when I see ill nature people - an opportunity to notice our reaction and let go of it - their ill nature may well have its origin in their own suffering. A more appropriate response would be one of metta, compassion and understanding.

Verse 5 working with people who insult you, harm, etc. Importance of an enemy – especially to practise patience Working with envy – your own & being a target for others

Verse 6 even more difficult working with disappointment, being let down, etc. by those who are close to you, etc. Experience of your world falling apart, etc. Seeing this as an initiation – new way of being. Forgiveness & accepting life is as it is

Life is King The bodhisattva never gives up!

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Verse 7

In brief, directly or indirectly,

May I give all help and joy to my mothers,

And may I take all their harm and pain

Secretly upon myself.

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Verse 7

Firstly ‘mothers’ refers to all sentient beings Could translate as cherish all sentient beings This particular verse describes the practice of Tonglen -

sending and receiving Many Tonglen forms. Usually the practice in which you cultivate a cherishing

and loving attitude towards others You reflect that everyone wants to be happy All are striving for happiness and well-being Because of their ignorance, they suffer in many ways

Tonglen practice

“Like prisoners unable to escape from a jail. They revolve in samsara. What a pity.” (Bodhicaryavatara)

In the Tonglen practice, you see their suffering as a thick black cloud of smoke rising of the world, rising from beings

You breathe in that black smoke with the in-breath right into your heart

The black smoke of suffering ignites in your heart your aspiration for the bodhicitta

You see this as a light in the heart - or possibly as a jewel

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Tonglen practice (cont.)

And then as you breathe out, and you breathe out light Usually it is white light but it could be coloured light The light is full of tenderness, love, happiness, merit and

abundance You see it falling on beings soothing their sorrows and

granting peace, satisfaction, even a great bliss itself You just keep doing this, breathing in the black smoke

and breathing out the white light

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White light pours all over all beings

You can bring to mind specific people e.g. your parents, friends, and especially those people who you know to be ill, who are suffering

Can also bring to mind people we have grievances with Or people you feel aversion for You just keep the breathing in and out. Taking in the

darkness and breathing out the white light of well-being The white light pours all over the beings You do this again and again

Develop a profound empathy Strangely, if you get into the practice, and really connect

with bodhicitta, the more you take, the more you can give

The bodhicitta shines more brightly, the more you take in the black smoke

You can imagine not just light falling on beings but you are giving them gifts, giving them what they need, e.g. riches, wealth, food, clothing, and even Nirvana itself

In this way through the practice you develop a profound empathy for others

You are taking on their pain and giving them happiness It is a very powerful practice as well is being very subtle

Doing the Practice Sometimes it seems that maybe not very much is

happening in the meditation, but you may find there are effects at other times outside the meditation

You might just be walking down the street and you start noticing people in a deeper way

You might find yourself in a difficult situation, you connect with the practice, and this brings you into a deep empathy with those involved

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When to do this practice In the ‘Seven-Point Mind Training’ Geshe Chekawa you

actually use this to transform personal difficulties, physical, mental, spiritual difficulties

It is recommended you do this practice when you are ill or when you’re in pain

Helps you to stop focusing on your own difficulties by identifying with others in pain

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Everybody suffers It suggested to do this by thinking of others who have

the same difficulty as you Breathing in all their difficulties and breathing out the

white light You can do this with almost anything: e.g. the klesas of

craving, or hatred You breathe in everybody’s craving, everybody’s hatred You then breathed out white lights removing the craving

or hatred of others This helps you to realise that everybody suffers from

these things This helps to break down excessive self-cherishing And of course you’re trying to bring this out in your daily

life

Directly & indirectly The verse says “In brief, directly or indirectly,” This suggests that we are not only working directly at

indirectly to remove suffering and pain, in all beings It is not possible to alleviate the suffering of all beings, in

a sense the bodhisattva ideal is impossible You can’t alleviate the suffering of all beings yourself You can help a bit and you can help some directly, to

some extent So indirectly is very important Need to see yourself, see a practice, your life, as a small

but highly significant contribution to all the good being done in the world

Not just the good other Buddhists are doing, but all the good done by everyone

Indirectly helping This is what rejoicing in merit in the Puja is about You are rejoicing in all the good done by all beings Whether it is going to lead to ordinary happiness or to

the ultimate happiness of Nirvana Often it is recommended after the Tonglen practice that

you do the rejoicing in merits to help you tune into all the good that is being done in the world

When you doing Tonglen it sometimes necessary to remember you are not the only person doing this practice

Aligning yourself with the good that has been done though out history

Bhante’s vision of history

A Vision of History Lecture at an Order Convention in 1978 He describes a kind of battle between the spiritual

communities & the group Mentioned all sorts of spiritual groups including Christian

and even Manichaeism - little known about them but hugely influential in Central Asia, Persia and China [A dualistic philosophy dividing the world between

good and evil principles or regarding matter as intrinsically evil and mind as intrinsically good (Webster's)]

He said the group doesn’t play by the same rules as the spiritual community

The group is willing to use violence to destroy the sangha

Part of something bigger He also said that the Order, the Sangha that we are

involved in is part of something bigger, part of a very big Movement

A movement of the desire to have spiritual community You need to relate your practice to that, see it as

something much bigger Perhaps we need to identify ourselves with the great

cultural heroes throughout time and space Today we practice in many different ways but important

not to forget the Dharma worker Many things that benefit the world but need a kind of

core – the Dharma

Dr Ambedkar He did much to help the poor & outcasts He was concerned with all sorts of improvements

Material, social, political, educational, cultural But form the beginning he understood for last change

had to be a profound moral shift He believed a society flounders without a deep spiritual,

ethical foundation He was highly critical of materialism We have unprecedented wealth, leisure, etc. but when

the bubble bursts what do we fall back on As we have seen in recent times people do not always

come together in a crisis e.g. the Balkans As Buddhist we have our part to play Need to practice deeply& profoundly

Metaphysical meaning Helping others indirectly has a a metaphysical meaning Bodhicitta is something around us that we contact Manifests wherever there is kindness and intelligence We can contribute to this. We can help make it grow Shantideva in his Bodhicaryavatara says that we can

make the bodhicitta grow and thrive in many Could also say grow and thrive in the world We could dedicate and merits to the bodhicitta growing

in thriving in the world The point is the good we do is never wasted is never

lost. It might be rejected by others Externals might be destroyed. Your centre might be

closed down; the WBO; TBMSG might disappear, but that all happens in time

But the good we do is not lost

We are always affecting things

There are waves, currents, ripples passing through passing through life generated from our good acts and a good acts of others

Something we do not appreciate what understand about Buddhism's use of the word Dharma

There is in Buddhism this notion that Dharma is this cosmological principle, not just teachings and practices

The idea is that your good acts is seen some wide tuning in, contributing to the nature of things

It sometimes said that the metta Bhavana, which we often approach as an internal practice, even a psychological practice to prepare for life, which is important of course

A Tantric practice Traditionally metta bhavana is actually affecting the

world as you sit It is a magical act This is how the Buddha taught the Karaniya metta sutta It was so that the monks could have a positive effect on

the deities that were disturbing their practices Metta bhavana is a Tantric practice If you really dwelling in loving kindness you are affecting

and really touching people when you are liberating that emotion into the world

No good acts are wasted All your good acts are always contributing to bodhicitta

Verse 7 (cont)And may I take all their harm and pain Secretly upon myself. Why secretly? You do not make a big deal about practising bodhicitta We need to be natural and unpretentious A bodhisattva just silently, quietly gets on with it. The bodhisattva probably doesn't know that he is even

bodhisattva. They probably don't even think like that He has completely forgotten him and it is a big surprise

when he finds the bodhicitta or when he sees that it is there.

This is a practice that is unpretentious

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Verse 8

May none of this ever be sulliedBy thoughts of the eight worldly

concerns. May I see all things as illusionsAnd, without attachment, gain freedom

from bondage.

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Verse 8

The 8 Worldly concern or winds Praise & blame Gain & loss Fame & infamy Pleasure & pain

To begin with it's going to be virtually impossible to keep the Eight Worldly Concerns out of our bodhisattva practice.

They will enter of course. If we care deeply about the bodhisattva path they will

enter in. But we can be aware of them and cultivate the view that

we will undermine.

Vision that all things are illusion

You need to see everything an illusion.

This verse gives us very briefly the profound view behind this teaching. The view of the emptiness of the own being, the self

nature of all things, of all people, of ourselves. Everything needs to be viewed as a magical illusion

as maya. As maya's dance. Everything appears, there is definitely appearance. But that appearance dissolve a way. That appearances like a dream or a memory. So you need to reflect and meditate on this. You need to meditate on the magical display of

things.

Absolute & relative bodhicitta Verse 8 gives us the view of the ultimate, the absolute

bodhicitta. Verse 7 is about the relative bodhicitta.

The relative bodhicitta is the compassionate response and the ultimate or absolute bodhicitta being the wisdom response.

In these eight verses we are given a vision of a being completely involved in the activity of contributing, of liberating, self and others.

He is passionate about that. But who knows at the same time that it will all pass

away. That everything is insubstantial like a dream. Everything is like a magical illusion.

Hard to imagine such a being

What we are asked of in the bodhisattva tradition is to be such a being.

We don't have to be incredibly metaphysical about this.

Quite simply we need to live a life devoted to the Dharma, for the benefit of others, but at the same time, in the midst of it always keeping impermanence in mind. Always.

Things rise & fall In Bhante's talk the vision of history it was a vision of the

rise and fall of spiritual communities. He deliberately mentioned Manichaeism, because it was

a thriving spiritual community. They were all vegetarians, artists, very cultured, non-

violent people, a very rich tradition but it was all destroyed.

All we have left his fragments of Manichaeism. It was completely decimated by a combination of

Zoroastrianism and Islam. Buddhist history, the great Buddhist civilisations, China,

Korea, Tibet, Central Asia, Indonesia, India all had incredible amazing cultures that they all came to an end.

But they rise and they fall. And it will be the same with us.

early days of the Dharma in West We have to remember that we are in the very, very, very

early days of the transmission of the Dharma in the West, in the modern world.

Things will come and go. They will arise and they will pass away. We need to

become fully aware of this. That without becoming cynical, or being hopeless, or

passive because you know whatever the ravages of time will do your skilful action, your contribution to bodhicitta never loses its effect.

It is never lost. It is never wasted. It will a rise again. Maybe not immediately but we can see that we are

doing all this now for our spiritual children and a spiritual grandchildren in the future.

We really need to have this new of things.

Locked into the present

So often we are just locked into the present moment. So locked into the people around us.

Locked into this time this place. But we need to think of who comes after us; after we

have long gone. What will be their legacy? What will we pass on to them? Will the bodhicitta is a teaching, as the practice be alive

for people in the future? We need to practice like that.

Develop both bodhicittas

Need to sit loosely to what we do whilst caring very deeply about what we do.

We need to generate both bodhicittas. The verses are an aspiration to develop bodhicitta They refer to both bodhicittas "may I develop both

bodhicittas"; the bodhicitta of compassion And the bodhicitta of the realisation of emptiness. Sunyata, karuna, garbha - remember.

The essence of emptiness-compassion.

8 Verses are precepts

And as such are to be memorised and said over, & over again

Brought to bear in all sorts of situations Originally not framed as a aspiration but and injunction –

I will cherish all beings They are also mind training There is a lot in them May find them hard – a bit much But good to enter the mind of the Bodhisattva – if only

briefly

The essence of the 8 verses

You could strip them down to get the essence of them: May I cherish all beings May I cherish others as supreme May I watch my mind When I see ill-natured people may I treasure them as

a treasure trove May I accept defeat and offer victory When I'm done great harm by someone I had trusted

may I see them as an excellent spiritual friend May I give all help and joy and may I take all harm

and pain May I see all things as illusions